
(ilass ^, 

Book„_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



HOME AND WORLD SERIES 



HOW WE ARE FED 



A GEOGRAPHICAL READER 



BY 



JAMES FRANKLIN CHAMBERLAIN 

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1903 



All rights refierved 



THELiLRARVOF 1 
CONGRESS. 1 


Two Copies 


Recdiveo 


JUN 24 


1903 


(\ Copyfight 
Pvuxc tJf-- 
CLASS ^ 

COPY 


Entry 

XXc. No. 

If 

a. 



:^p' 



M 



Copyright, 1903, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up, electrotyped, and published June, 1903. 



J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



PREFACE 

In the ordinary co.urse. of events, most indi- 
viduals take some part in the manifold industries 
which engage the mind and the hand of man, by 
which alone our present-day civilization can be 
maintained. These great world activities touch 
the daily life of every member of society, 
whether child or adult, worker or idler. 

A chain of mutual dependence, too often un- 
;vcognized, binds together the members of the 
human family, whether they belong to the same 
community or dwell on opposite sides of the 
earth. The links of this chain are made up of 
the articles which constitute our daily food, our 
clothing, homes, fuel, light, our means of com- 
munication and transportation, and only by con- 
tinuous cooperation are they kept together. - 

The highest motive in education is to present 
the conditions which will lead to the most com- 
plete living ) to build up the best possible mem- 



VI PREFACE 

bers of society; to develop character. An 
individual who does not understand the life of 
which he finds himself a part, cannot be in full 
sympathy with its conditions and hence cannot 
be of the most service to himself or to others. 
Only to the extent that education and life follow 
the same general course, can each be truly suc- 
cessful. Far too little is done in our schools to 
acquaint children with their relations to the 
great industrial and social organization of which 
they are members. Even grown persons have, 
as a rule, a very indefinite knowledge of these 
relations. 

It is a recognized principle that our knowledge 
of geography has its foundation in our knowl- 
edge of the home. The natural connecting link 
between the immediate surroundings and the 
outside world is the 2?7'ese7it daily life of the 
home. Through the industries seen in the com- 
munity, the commodities in general use, and the 
history of their creation and supply, the pupil 
acquires an insight into the life about him as 
well as into that of other parts of the world. 
He also realizes the great truth that the world 



PREFACE VII 

and its people are in intimate touch with him. 
In this way he is led back and forth along the 
routes which civilization has followed in its 
progress, which it also follows to-day, as man- 
kind clasp hands across oceans and continents. 
Thus the remote and abstract become immediate 
and concrete. Facts are seen in a setting of 
reason, and a logical and interesting basis for 
the study of physical, climatic, and human con- 
ditions is furnished. 

This study begins with the commodities in 
constant use and finally encompasses the whole 
world, but always with the home as the base of 
operations. It will create a knowledge of the 
interdependence of individuals, communities, and 
nations, and a genuine respect for the work of 
the hands and for the worker. The importance 
of this respect is not likely to be overestimated. 
Without it a true democracy cannot long exist. 

Reading should not only serve for the acquisi- 
tion and the expression of the thought contained 
in the printed page ; it should, in addition, stim- 
ulate to neio thought — to independent power in 
reasoning. On this account questions are in- 



viii PREFACE 

serted which the pupil is left to answer. These 
are suggestive of a much larger number, which 
should be worked out by the teacher. Too 
many of the questions found in books do not 
'^stimulate thought" or "independent power in 
reasoning." They are purely informatory and 
not at all formative. 

No attempt has been made to treat every 
article of food. Those in most general use, as 
well as those which will best serve to develop a 
knowledge of geographical conditions and of 
man's relation to man, have been chosen. 

A given industry is pursued in somewdiat dif- 
ferent ways in different places. It has not been 
thought wise to describe each modification in 
these pages. For example, the method of han- 
dling wheat in California is different from that 
employed in Minnesota. The value of the work 
will be increased if the teacher will bring out 
these points. 

All places mentioned should he definitely lo- 
cated, both as to position on the map or globe 
and with reference to the home. When devel- 
oped from the standpoint of direct, personal 



PREFACE IX 

interest, a knowledge of the location of places 
as well as of other facts mentioned is most 
likely to be retained. 

The ilkistrations used have been very care- 
fully selected for their teaching value. They 
give a clearness to mental pictures which can be 
derived only through observation of that which 
the illustrations symbolize. Much experience in 
the use of geographical illustrations has shown 
that pupils need to be directed in their examina- 
tion of them. To secure the best results they 
must be made the centers of thought-developing 
questions. 

Thanks are due the Pillsbury-Washburn Flour 
Mills Company of Minneapolis, the Swift Pack- 
ing Company of Chicago, the Walter Baker 
Company of Dorchester, the United Fruit Com- 
pany of New Orleans, and Dr. Charles U. Shep- 
ard of Pinehurst Plantation, for the excellent 
illustrations furnished by them. 

JAMES FRANKLIN CHAMBERLAIN. 

State Normal School, 
Los Angeles, March, 1903. 



CONTENTS 



The Past axo the Present . 
■^ The Story of a Loaf of Bread 

How OUR INIeat is supplied 

Market Gardening 

Dairy Products 

Butter Making 

Cheese 
VFhe Fishin(j Industry . 

Oyster Far:ming 

A Rice Field . 

How Sugar is made 

Beet Sugar 

Maple Sugar . 

Where Salt comes from 

Macaroni and Vermicelli 

On a Coffee Plantation 

The Tea Gardens of China 

A Cup of Cocoa 

A Cranberry Bog . 

The Cocoanut Islands of the P 



\CIFIC 



1 
7 

18 

32 

41 

44 

50 

54 

64 

70 

77 

84 

87 

91 

99 

104 

113 

120 

131 

139 



xu PREFACE 

PAGE 

A Bunch of Bananas 146 

How Dates grow 155 

The Orange Groves of Southern California . 165 

A Visit to a Vineyard 174 

Nutting 184 

A Walnut Vacation 187 

Chestnuts 193 

A Bag of Peanuts 195 

Assorted Nuts 201 

A Strange Conversation 206 



HOW WE ARE FED 



HOW WE ARE FED 

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT 

Long, long ago people did not live as we do 
to-day. Their homes were very different from 
ours, for they were made of the skins of wild 
animals, of the limbs and bark of trees, or of tall 
grasses. There were no stoves, chairs, tables, or 
beds in their houses. Instead of lamps, gas, 
or electricity, a fire on the dirt floor or in front 
of the house, furnished the light. 

The clothing of these people was as simple 
as their homes. It was made of skins and 
furs in cold countries and in warm countries of 
braided grasses and the fibers of certain plants. 
You may be sure that tailors and dressmakers 
were not consulted as to the latest styles, for the 
styles did not change and there were neither 
tailors nor dressmakers to talk to. Each family 



2 HOW WE ARE FED 

made its own clothing, and there was not a 
sewing machine to be found. 

How would you like to use a bone for a 
needle ? Sometimes, instead of sharpened bones, 
long thorns were used. The sinews of the deer, 
or of some other animal, usually furnished the 
thread. 

When the people were in need of food, they 
went into the forest and gathered roots, nuts, 
and fruits. Wild animals were killed by 
means of such weapons as bows and arrows 
and spears, and fish were caught in the lakes 
and streams. 

The food was not cooked as ours is ; for, as 
I have told you, there were no stoves. Some- 
times the meat was broiled over the fire, some- 
times baked in a hole filled with ashes and coals, 
but it was often eaten raw. It was not easy 
to have a variety of food, and there were 
times when it was very difficult to obtain 
anything. When food was abundant, the 
people feasted, and when it was scarce, they 
were often hungry. How would you like to 
wait for your breakfast while your father 



THE PAST AND THE PRESENT 3 

went to the woods or to the river in search of 
something to eat ? 

When the meals were prepared, they were 
not neatly served as yours are, but each person 




Fig. 1. — Indians at Dinner. 

took his portion and sat on the ground while 
he ate it. 

All of this seems very strange to you, I know. 
If you live in the city, you are accustomed to 
seeing the butcher, the baker, the milkman, and 
the grocer call every da3^ There are stores 



4 HOW WE ARE FED 

where people can buy whatever they want to 
eat, drink, or wear. You wonder how any one 
could live in such a way as I have described, 
but there are people who live in this fashion 
to-day, although you have never seen any of 
them. They are uncivilized. Where do you 
think they are to be found? When people live 
in this way, it takes most of their time to provide 
themselves with the things that are necessary to 
life. They have little opportunity to improve 
their ways of living and of thinking. 

Civilized people divide their work. Some 
provide food, some make clothing, some build 
houses, and some furnish fuel. Each one does 
his or her part. In this way, you see, they learn 
to do their work ])etter and better, because each 
gives much time and thought to one kind of 
work. This plan gives each one time to study 
and to learn something about the world and its 
people. Think how much better our homes, our 
clothing, and our food are, than are those of 
uncivilized people, and how many other advan- 
tages we have. 

It is only possible to live as we do, when 



THE PAST AND THE PRESENT 6 

eacli one works for others as well as for him- 
self. If any one fails to do his part, the rest 
must suffer until some one is found to take his 
place. It is to prepare yourself to do your jMi^t 
in some useful work for others, that you are 




Fig. 2. — White People at Dinner. 

going to school day by day. You do not now 
know just what that work is to be, but I want 
you to remember that all honest work is noble. 
It is not so important ivhat vjork you do, as it is 
that you should do your work ivell. No matter 



6 HOW WE ARE FED 

what your work may be, you can carry sunsliine 
in your face and helpfulness in your heart. If 
you do this, you will be known and loved. 
Hard work, coarse clothes, and lack of money 
can never hide these things, neither will the 
finest of clothing cover a selfish or untruthful 
nature. 

Let us look at this dinner table loaded wdth 
good thiugs to eat and drink. There are bread, 
butter, meat, vegetables, milk, tea, fruits, and 
other things. You see at once that many per- 
sons must have worked to provide this food, for 
only a suiall part of the work was done in the 
kitchen. If these things could but speak, they 
might tell you stories as wonderful as fairy 
tales. They have been gathered here from the 
fertile plains of the West, from the sunny 
South, from Brazil, from the islands of the 
Pacific Ocean, from far-off China, and even 
from the w^aters of the sea. 



THE STORY OF A LOAF OF BREAD 

lu the dark granary of a farmer's barn in 
North Dakota once lived a modest family of 
grains of Avheat. The bright, warm days of the 
snmmer time, during which they had been 
ph\ced in this dark room, soon grew shorter 
and cooler. The swallows, whose mud nests 
were in the rafters overhead, told the wheat 
brothers that winter was coming, and then flew 
away to tlie balmy sonthland. 

Soon Ijiting winds and blinding snow came 
sweeping over the level land. Sometimes the 
farmhonse was almost hidden nnder the drifts, 
and the farmer had to shovel ont a path to the 
barn, so that he conld feed the horses and cattle. 
By and by the days grew warmer, the snow dis- 
appeared, and the birds retnrned one by one. 
The farmer and his men got ont their plows 
and harrows, and prepared the soil for the 
seeds soon to be planted. 

7 



8 now WE ARE FED 

The wheat was now shoveled mto sacks and 
taken to the fiekls. Here it was placed in great 
machines drawn by horses, which scattered it 
evenly over the land and at the same time 
covered it with soft soik The men whistled 
and sang as they worked, and blackbirds, bine- 
birds, and larks flew back and forth, singing 
and searching for bugs and worms, as well as 
for the shining kernels of wheat. 

The wheat was not content to remain under- 
ground, but kept trying to push itself out into 
the world. One night there came a warm 
shower, and the next morning what looked 
like tiny, green blades of grass appeared all 
over the field. 

All through the spring and summer the wheat 
kept growing, and finally there appeared at the 
ends of the stalks clusters of kernels, just like 
those which the farmer had planted. Some of 
these kernels had produced families of twenty 
or thirty. These clusters are called heads. 

As the south wind passed over the field it 
brought the wheat messages from Minnesota, 
Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and other states, telling 



THE 8T0RY OF A LOAF OF BREAD 11 

of relatives who were already turning golden 
in the summer sunshine. One day some of 
the kernels tliought they heard a voice from 
California. Do you think they did ? 

The grain in some of the fields was called 
winter ivheat. This was because the grain had 
been sown the autumn before, and had remained 
in the ground all winter, covered by a blanket 
of snow. Why was it sown in the fall ? The 
wheat of which I am telling you was called 
by the farmer spring ivheat. 

Soon machines, each drawn by several horses, 
appeared. They cut the waving grain, and 
bound it up in bundles called sheaves. These 
were set up in double rows to dry, and after- 
ward put into another machine wbicli sepa- 
rated the kernels from the stalks, which Avere 
noAv called straw. This work the faimer calls 
threshing. See if you can find out how this 
used to be done. 

After threshing, the wheat was put into 
sacks and taken to tlie nearest railroad station. 
Freight cars then carried it across the level 
prairies to the beautiful city of Minneapolis, 



12 



HOW WE ARE FED 



built beside the Falls of Saint Anthony. What 
river is this city on ? Of what use are the 
falls? 

There are tall buildings called elevators here 
in which the wheat was stored for a time. 
Before being put into the elevators it was 




rhreshins; Wheat in Southern California. 



examined and graderL As there was wheat 
from many farms it could not be kept separate, 
so each farmer was told how much he had, 
and how it graded. 

Some time after this the wheat was taken 
to one of the great mills to be ground into 
flour. The largest of these mills manufactures 



THE SIORY OF A LOAF OF BREAD 



13 



about fifteen thousand barrels of flour every 
day. This is the largest flour mill in the 
world. 

When the kernels reached the mill, they 
were put into machines called sejxirators, to 
be separated from all companions such as grass 




Fig. 5. — The Flour Mills in Minneapolis. 

seed, mustard seed, and wild buckwheat. They 
were then placed in an iron box in which 
brushes were revolving rapidly, and were 
scoured to free them from fuzz and dirt. 
Those that were very dirty were wished. 

The kernels Avere steamed, in order that the 
coating, called hrcoi, might not break into 



14 



HOW WE ARE FED 



small pieces. This is called tempering. The 
kernels now thought that their trials were 
over, but they were mistaken. Soon they 
found themselves being crushed between rollers. 
After they came out they were sifted, and then 




Fic. 0. — The Largest Flour Mill in the World. 

run between other rollers. This was repeated 
six times, and each time the flour was a little 
finer, for the rollers were closer together. The 
flour was then run through tubes of flannel. 
These took out whatever dust it contained. It 



THE STORY OF A LOAF OF BREAD 



15 



was then ground still finer. The flour was 
then put into sacks or barrels, which were 
marked for shipment to other parts of the 
country. 

Only the wheat intended for the very best 
grade of flour is treated as carefully as tliis was. 




Fig. 7. — Grinding Wheat. 

What industry does the use of barrels bring in ? 

From the mills the flour was sent to many 
parts of the land to supply stores, bakeries, 
hotels, and homes. Some of it found its way 
to the bakery near your home. The bakers, in 
their clean suits of white, weighed the flour 



16 



HOW WE ARE FED 



which they were going to use, and then added 
a certain amount of water to it. Some yeast 
and salt were added also. This mixture they 
called dough. You have seen your mother mix 
or hieacl dough, I am sure. The bakers did 




Fig. 8. —Bolting Flour. 

not do the kneading with their hands, but by 
means of machinery made for this purpose. 

When the dough had been thoroughly 
kneaded it was left to inse. It is the yeast 
that causes the rising. This makes the bread 
light and spongy. It was then cut into loaves 
and placed in the oven. The ovens in the 



THE STORY OF A LOAF OF BREAD 1< 

bakery are very much larger than those in 
yoiu' kitchen stove, for many loaves are baked 
at once. When a nice shade of brown ap- 
peared on the loaves, the bakers took them out 
of the oven by means of long shovels. Soon 
the delivery wagons came and were loaded 
with the fresh bread to be delivered to stores 
and homes. This loaf was just left at the 
door and is still warm. 

So, you see, a loaf of bread has quite a his- 
tory. I have told you the life story of this 
one from the time of its grandparents, who 
were raised on the plains of North Dakota. 
Would it not be interesting to see each of the 
people who have had something to do with its 
production, and to make the journey which 
the wheat and the flour made ? You can do 
both in your thoughts. 



HOW OUR MEAT IS SUPPLIED 

Ramon lived in a plain, one-story house, built 
in the shade of some cottonvvood trees that 
frill o'ed each side of a small river in the eastern 
part of Colorado. A wide veranda extended 
entirely around the house, but there were very 
few flowers and no lawn. I am afraid you 
would not til ink it a very pleasant place for a 
home. 

Not far from the ranch house, as it was called, 
were the jjarn and the corrah. A corral is a 
yard with a strong, high fence about it, in 
which cattle or horses may be placed. Ou the 
bottom land beside the stream, there w^as a corn 
and an alfalfa patch, besides one containing 
some potatoes and garden vegetables. 

During most of the }'ear the stream was 
quite shallow, and flowed quietly .over its bed, 
but when heavy rains occurred it rose rapidly, 
spreading over much of the bottom land and 

18 



HOW OUR MEAT IS SUITLTED 19 

carrying so iiiuch clay with it that it was almost 
the color of coffee. 

Except along the river, not a tree was in 
sight from Ramon's home, and it was many 
miles to the nearest honse. For hundreds of 
miles both north and south, there stretched a 
vast plain. Little was to be seen but sand, 
grass, and sagebrush. I had almost .forgotten 
the prairie dogs, which scamper across the plain 
or sit up straight and UKjtionless on a little 
mound of sand beside their burrows. They 
watch you closely, not moving unless they 
regard you as a dangerous creature, Avlieu, quick 
as a flash, they disappear. 

The rainfall is very slight in this part of the 
country, being less than twenty inches a year. 
On this account there is little attention paid to 
farming, Ijut instead, the settlers ow^n great 
herds of cattle as well as many horses. Ra- 
mon's father is one of the cattlemen of Colorado. 
He owns more tlian ten thousand head of cattle, 
and some of the cattlemen own tw^ice that 
number. Of course such great herds of cattle 
must have nmch land to graze on. Some of 



20 HOW WE ARE FED 

the land is owned by the government and any 
one may use it. Everywhere fences are far 
apart. These great pastures are called ranges. 

Ramon's life is not nmch like yours. His 
home is far from schools, churches, stores, or 
railroads. He seldom sees strangers, but he 
enjoys long rides on his own pony, Prince. 
Somethnes he goes Avith his father and at other 
times he takes a gallop with one of the " cow- 
boys" who herd the cattle. 

The " cowboys " almost live in the saddle. 
They are out in all kinds of weather and are 
not boys at all, but strong, hardy men. They 
wear broad-brimmed hats, and carry long ropes 
called lassos or Icmats, with which they catch 
the cattle. 

Where there are so many herds they some- 
times get mixed up. On this account each 
cattleman marks or brands his animals. These 
brands may be the initial letter of the owner's 
name, or they may be in tlie form of a horse- 
shoe, a cross, a circle, or a crescent. 

Each spring and fall the cowboys gather 
the cattle together. This is called " rounding 



HOW OUR MEAT IS SUPPLIED 



21 



up " the cattle. They are then counted and 
the calves born since the last "round up" are 
branded. In the fall, in addition to this work, 
animals are selected for the market. Why is 
the fall a better time for this than the spring ? 
The cowboys, mounted upon their swift, 
strong ponies, single out the animals that have 




Fig. 9. — Branding Cattle. — Point to the Lariats. 

never been branded, and swinging their lassos 
over their heads, they throw them with . such 
skill that the loop settles over the head or about 
the leg of the one wanted. As soon as the 
rope tightens, the pony braces its forefeet firmly 
and the animal is finally thrown to the ground. 



22 now WE ARE FED 

It is then branded with a hot iron and allowed 
to go. Eamon used to feel very sorry for them 
until his father explained that it hurt them 
very little, for only the skin was burned. 

Sometimes the cattle selected to be sold, are 
not quite fat enough for the market. They are 
then taken farther east into the corn belt and 
fed for a time. 

When they are shipped directly from the 
range to the market, they are driven to the 
nearest railroad and put into yards beside 
the track. They are then made to walk up an 
incline with high railings ending at the open 
doors of a cattle car. The animals are arrancj-ed 
so that the first faces one side of the car, the 
second the other, and so on. This is done so 
that the cattle cannot hook one another, and 
also that they may be fed and watered on the 
way from a long iron trough which is fastened 
to each side of the car. 

The great cattle markets of the United States 
are Omaha, Kansas City, and Chicago. Find 
these cities. 

One day when Ramon was about fourteen 



HOW OUK MEAT IS SUPPLIED 23 

years old, his father told liini that he was going 
to take a train load of cattle to Chicago and 
that he might go with him. It was a happy 
time for Ramon, yon may be snre, for he was 
very anxious to see some of the wonderful 
sights his father had told him about. 

At last the day when they were to start on 
their jonrney arrived. The afternoon before, 
the cowboys had driven the cattle to the rail- 
road so as to load them early in the morning. 
Soon after brc;dvfast Ramon kissed his mother 
and his little sister good-by, and he and his 
father rode off across the level plain. 

Finding the cattle already loaded in the 
cars, Ramon and his father were soon seated 
in the caboose, rolling over the miles of rail- 
road which connected them with Chicago. 
Whenever the train stopped for a few min- 
utes, tliey took a long stick and went from 
car to car making the cattle that had lain 
down get up, so that they might not be in- 
jured by the others. 

Wlien bedtime came, they made their beds 
on the benches along each side of the caboose, 



24 HOW wp: are fed 

which are covered with cushions. As they had 
brought blankets wdth them, they were fairly 
comfortable. 

Kamon did not sleep very soundly the first 
night. The engine shrieked from time to time, 
and the car rocked and jolted so that he w^as 
afraid of falling from his bed. 

The next day they reached a part of the 
country where great cornfields w^aved in the 




Fig. 10. — Bird's Eye View of Union Stock Yards, Chicago. 

breeze. The leaves had already turned brown, 
and golden ears of grain peeped out from tlie 
ends of the husks. There were stubble fields, 
too, where wdieat and oats had been harvested. 
The country became more thickly settled as 
they w^ent on, and the towns were nearer to- 
gether. Streams were more common, and 
grass and timber more abundant. The young 



HOW OUR MEAT IS SUPPLIED 25 

traveler wondered why this was so. Can you 
tell? 

Early in the morning of the fourth day the 
train reached Chicago. After much switching 
and backing the cars were run into the Union 
Stock Yards, and the cattle were unloaded. 

Kamon was thoroughly bewildered by what 
he saw and heard. Men were shouting and 
cracking whips; others were riding up and down 
tlie alleys that separate the yards ; dogs were 
barkino; and turnino- the animals this Avay and 
that, and gates w^ere swinging back and forth. 

The cattle were weighed and examined to 
see if they had any disease, and were then 
placed in charge of a commission mer chant to 
be sold. Buyers come to the yards and bar- 
gain with these commission merchants. When 
an unusually large number of cattle come in, 
the prices are likely to fall ; when few arrive, 
the prices rise. 

When the cattle had been yarded, Ramon's 
father said that they would go and have 
breakfast. In the afternoon they visited the 
"yards," and the slaughter and packing houses. 



26 



HOW WE ARE FED 



The "yards" cover about a square mile of terri- 
tory. They are divided into countless pens or 
small yards, containing sheds, feeding racks, 
and wateruig troughs. 

Kanion asked how many cattle were unloaded 
in these yards daily. His father handed him a 




Fig. 11. — Dressing Beef. 

copy of the Chicacjo Live Stock World, and at 
the top of the hrst column he read that on the 
day previous there had been received 18,500 
cattle, 35,000 hogs, and 18,000 sheep. He 
Avas told that sometimes the receipts are much 
larger than this and sometimes not so large. 



HOW OUR MEAT IS SUPPLIED 27 

They followed the bodies of the cattle from 
the slaughterhouses where they are dressed, 
into the cooling rooms. These are simply great 
refrigerators. Wagons come to the cooling 
rooms and haul loads of the meat to butcher 
shops, hotels, and depots. Within a fow hours 




Fig. 12.— Cooling Beef. 

it finds its way to smaller cities and towns in 
all directions. A great deal of meat is shipped 
even to Europe. Why does not Europe pro- 
duce its own meat ? 

When the meat has thoroughly hardened in 
the cooling rooms, it is sent to the curing 



28 



HOW WE ARE FED 



rooms, where it is cut up and packed. Each 
person here does his particular work from 
morning until night. 

Ramon learned, to his surprise, that every 
part of the animal is used. Hair, hide, horns, 




Fig. 13. — Splitting Backbone of Hogs. 



hoofs, teeth, bones, and even blood, are made 
use of. 

Most of the hogs which enter the great meat- 
packing cities are raised in the corn belt. 

The sheep need much pasturage, and so the 
largest flocks are found in the Western and 



HOW OUR MEAT IS SUPPLIED 



29 



Southwestern states. A single herder may 
take care of several thousand sheep. His 
faithful companions and helpers are intelligent 
shepherd dogs. After a great flock of sheep 
lias fed on an area, hardly a green thing is 




Fig. 14. — Curing Fork in Salt. 

left. The people in the part of the West 
where there is little rainfall, object to the 
pasturing of sheep around the head waters of 
streams, because when the vegetation is re- 
moved the water runs off too quickly. 

In the evening our friends watched the 



30 



HOW WE ARE FED 



men, women, and children march out of the 
"yards." They were told that not less than 
thh^ty-five thousand persons were employed in 
the various establishments. There is but one 
city in Colorado which contains so many people. 




¥iu. 15. — Chopping Sausage Meat. 



As they sat at breakfast next morning, 
Ramon wondered how many of tlie people of 
Chicago were eating steaks from cattle which 
he had seen on his fathers ranch. The 
thought was a new one to him. His trip 
had shown him that the cattlemen who lived 



HOW OUR MEAT IS SUPPLIED 



31 



and worked on those far-away plains were 
doing tlieir part in supplying people all over 
our country with meat. Their lonely life. 




Fig. 16. — Packing Poultry. 



with all of its disadvantages, now had a new 
meaning for him, and he went hack to his 
Western home content with it, yet very glad to 
have had this glimpse of another side of life. 



MARKET GARDENING 

Think of the immense quantities of fruits and 
vegetables that are used daily on the tables of a 
great city such as New York or Chicago. As 
we travel up and down the streets of any great 
city, we see rows of buildings, sometimes built 
in solid blocks and sometimes a little distance 
apart. Some have trees and small lawns in 
front of them ; others are without even this 
touch of nature. Nowhere, except in the out- 
skirts, do we find gardens. 

Tliese i^^ojjle dejKncl ui^on others to furnish 
them ivith their vegetable food. 

Now let us make some excursions into the 
region surrounding: one of these cities. For 
miles and miles we see on every hand truck 
farms or market gardens. The main business 
of those who live in these districts is to furnish 
food for the people of the city, so that the 
latter may devote their time to tlieir various 
occupations. 

32 



MARKET GARDENING 33 

We see growing potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes, 
beans, peas, squashes, turnips, onions, sweet 
corn, celery, melons, and many other things. 
Usually all of these will be found in one garden, 
Init sometimes the farmer raises only a few 
kinds, or perhaps but one. 

Market gardening is very common in Ger- 
many, Holland, Italy, China, and in other 
densely populated countries. Therefore we 
often find people who have come from these 
countries to America engaged in this business. 
Chinese gardeners are seldom seen in the 
East, but on the Pacific coast they raise most 
of the vegetables used in the cities and 
towns. 

In the early spring, before the ground is 
warm enough to make seeds grow, the gardener 
starts his plants in " hotbeds." These are 
long wooden boxes, or frames, without bottoms, 
covered with glass. They are usually placed 
on the south side of some buildins; or hitrli 
fence. Tlie glass covers allow the warm sun- 
shine to enter the '• beds " freely, but they 
prevent the rapid escape of the heat. You 



34 HOW WE ARE FED 

see now why they are called "hotbeds." T-hey 
are like small greenhouses. 

A little later in the spring the fields are 
thoroughly cultivated and the plants trans- 
planted. Of course only the vegetables desired 
for the early market are started in this way. 
What advantage is there in having the vege- 
tables ready for the market very early in the 
season ? 

Vegetable farming is not easy work, although 
it is a pleasure to see things grow day by day 
as you care for them, and as nature supplies her 
sunshine and her rain. The fields must be cul- 
tivated almost constantly, to keep the soil loose, 
as well as to remove the weeds. Much of the 
weeding has to be done by hand, which is 
tedious work. 

We want our vegetables fresh every morning; 
and as the truck farms are at some distance from 
the city, the farmer must load up his Avagon 
the night before. Of course much produce is 
sent to the cities on trains, but where farmers 
live near enough to deliver it themselves, their 
crops are more profitable to them. Why? 



MARKET GARDENING 37 

Everything is put in readiness before dark ; 
and while others are still in bed, the farmer 
mounts his wagon to start toward the sleeping 
city. I have often ridden ten or fifteen miles 
on such a load before the stars faded away. 

It is a novel experience. At first the night 
seems strangely still, but soon you are able to 
distinguish many voices couiing from various 
places. The frogs croak from the ponds by the 
roadside ; crickets and locusts send their shrill 
notes from grass and tree ; a night owl startles 
you by his dismal hoot ; the lamps of the fire- 
flies gleam, then disappear only to shine out 
again a little farther on. 

At last a faint glow appears in the eastern 
sky, which grows brighter and brighter until 
the shining face of the sun is pushed above the 
horizon. Do you not think such a ride would 
be more enjoyable than a street car ride ? 

In the cities there are market places where 
produce from the country is taken. In Chicago 
there is a very busy street where much of the 
buying and selling is done. Study the picture 
carefully. Here the buyers from hotels, restau- 



88 HOW WE ARE FED 

rants, and stores, as well as the men who wish to 
peddle the produce from house to house, go for 
their daily supplies. There are also commis- 
sion merchants whose stores are on this street. 
They sell the produce for those who ship it to 
the city by train. 

We go to the stores and get what we want 
each day, or the peddlers bring it to the door. 
You see how necessary it is to have special 
workers to supply us with the different kinds 
of food. We consider it very important that 
we should have vet^etables and fruits fresh 
daily. The work of supplying us w^itli this 
food is very important. Eemember that those 
who till the soil are entitled to as great respect 
as are those who do not work with their hands. 
Contact with nature makes men and women 
better, and many of the noblest souls that the 
world has known have lived in the country and 
plowed, planted, and harvested the products 
of the soil. 




JNIarket ISceiie. Chicaico. 




IV^rket Scene. New York. 



DAIRY PRODUCTS 

Uncle Ben lives on a dairy farm in the west- 
ern part of New York State. It is a beautiful 
rolling country with cultivated fields, woodland, 
and pastures, and here and there a sparkling 
stream winding its way through the lowlands. 
The farmhouses are large and well built, and 
are surrounded by grand old maple, beech, and 
elm trees. Most of the barns are painted red 
with white trimmings. 

There are many dairy farms in the neighbor- 
hood. Some of the farmers send their milk to 
the towns to be used directly, some sell it to 
creameries, and some to cheese factories. 

Last summer I spent my vacation on Uncle 
Ben's farm, and Cousin Frank and I had happy 
times, you may be sure. 

Every day, just before sundown, we went to 
the pasture for the cows.. There were about 
twenty-five of them, and they always seemed 

41 



42 HOW WE ARE FED 

perfectly contented after the long day of feast- 
ing on rich grass and clover. 

After we drove them into the barnyard Uncle 
Ben helped ns fasten them in their stanchions 
in the barn. Then the men brought the bright 
pails and cans to begin milking. Cousin Frank 
and I always helped, although he can milk 
much faster than I. Some of the cows gave 
but two or three cpiarts, while others gave as 
many gallons. 

We strained the milk into cans holding eight 
gallons each, and put them into tanks of w^ater 
to cool. After milking was finished w^e turned 
the cattle into the barnyard for the night. 

In the morning w^e commenced milking about 
sunrise. After breakfast the cans Avere loaded 
into a spring wagon and Uncle Ben drove to the 
depot. Here they were put on the "milk train," 
which took them to the city. 

Many other people sent milk on this same 
train. It was sent to bakeries, to hotels and 
restaurants, and to milkmen, who delivered it 
from house to house. Usually the milkmen put 
the milk into pint or quart bottles for people 



DAIRY PRODUCTS 43 

who like to have it in that form. Uncle Ben 
told us that mucli of the milk that is sent to 
New York City is bottled before it is sent. The 
bottling is done by machinery. He also told 
us that, because of the great importance of hav- 
ing pure milk, there are, in all cities, inspectors 
who carefully examine the milk and report to 
the Board of Health. The cows also are in- 
spected, and if any are sick, they are usually 
killed. 

Each evening some one drove to the depot 
again to get empty cans which the milk train 
had brought home. These were always care- 
fully washed in hot water before being used 
again. 



BUTTER MAKING 

One day, after I had been on the farm about 
a week, Uncle Ben took Frank and me to the 
creamery. A creamery is a place where the 
milk and cream are separated and butter is 
made. 

We found several wagonloads of milk being 
unloaded. The milk was weighed as it was 
received, for it is sold by weight. 

The milk was then strained into a large gal- 
vanized iron tub, from which a pipe carried it 
into a circular machine called the sejmrator. 
The separator revolves rapidly, throwing the 
milk, which is heavier than the cream, to the 
outer edge, where it passes through small holes 
into a compartment by itself. The cream rises 
along the center and passes through another set 
of openings into a special compartment. A pipe 
carries it to a large vat, while another pipe 
conveys the milk to large tanks. 

44 



BUTTER MAKING 45 

Uncle Ben told me that when people make 
their own butter, they must wait for the cream 
to rise on the milk. The cream is then skimmed 
off, and the milk is called skimrned milk. Al- 
though the milk in the creamery is not skimmed, 
the same name is used for it. 

I asked if the skimmed milk was used for 
anything. Uncle Ben gave me a cupful of it 
to taste. It was very good. He then told me 
that the separator takes out only the part 
needed in making butter, leaving all of the 
sugar. I did not know before that milk con- 
tains sugar. 

The farmers take home loads of this milk to 
feed it to their hogs. For each hundred pounds 
of milk delivered, they get back seventy-five 
pounds of skimmed milk, besides the pay for 
their cream. 

The creamery man told me that he made 
from four to six pounds of butter from one 
hundred pounds of milk. 

The cream remains in the large vat about 
twenty-four hours before it is churned. The 
churn, as you see by the picture, is a great 



46 HOW WE ARE FED 

barrel made to revolve by machinery. It takes 
from thirty-five minutes to one hour to churn] 
The man told me that I midit look at the boo] 
in which he kept the record of the churning, 
saw that he made from two hundred fifty t( 
six hundred pounds of butter at a churningj 
He said that some churns would produce mor 
than one thousand pounds at a churning. 

Not all of the cream is made into butter. 
There is left in the bottom of the churn a liquic 
called haUerinllk. This is drawn off, and thel 
butter is washed and luorked before being taken 
out of the churn. The working is done by means 
of paddles in the churn. It continues for six or 
eight minutes and squeezes the liquid out of the 
butter. 

While the butter is being worked, it is salted. 
Some of the butter is unsalted, but most of it 
is salted. When butter is made in the home, 
it must be churned by hand. Only a few pounds 
at a time can be made in this w^ay. 

When the butter was taken out of the churn, 
the men packed it solidly in wooden boxes about 
two feet square and four inches deep. The bottom 




A Separator. 




A Cham. 



BUTTER MAKING 49 

of each box consisted of strips as wide as a 
square of butter. These were held together 
by a clamp, and the sides were hooked to the 
bottom and to one another. When the butter 
is to be cut into squares, these sides are re- 
moved and zinc ones take their places. In these 
there are slits running from top to bottom. 
Through these slits a wire saw is run, and so 
the butter is quickly cut into one or two pound 
squares. The butter is then wrapped in fancy 
papers upon which the name of the butter or 
of the creamery is stamped. 

Of course some of the butter is packed in 
wooden tubs and shipped in that form. This 
butter is a little cheaper than that put up in 
squares. 



CHEEbrj 

I was so much pleased with my visit to thl 
creamery, that Uncle Ben promised to show mi 
how cheese is made. So one morning just after 
breakfast he, Cousin Frank, and I started out. 
After a pleasant ride of about five miles we 
reached the factory. 

The first process here was the same as that 
at the creamery. After the milk was weighed 
it was run into great zinc-lined vats. There 
were four of these in the factory, each of 
wliicli held about five thousand pounds. 

Uncle Ben explained that the milk must 
curdle before cheese can be made. In order to 
make it curdle quickly, a little less than a 
pound of a substance called rennet w^as put 
into each vat. 

A man worked at each vat with a long 
wooden rake, stirring the milk constantly. I 
saw a glass tube standing in the milk and 
asked what it was. Uncle Ben told me to 

50 



CHEESE 51 

look at it closely. I saw that it was a ther- 
mometer, and that it registered eighty degrees. 
A little while after I looked again, when it 
showed a temperature of ninety degrees. The 
milk is kept warm, so as to lieljD it to curdle 
quickly. 

In about an hour I could see the curd 
very plainly, but the men kept on stirring and 
cutting it. Presently one of them carried a 
piece of the cnrd to a table. He heated a small 
iron rod and touched it with the curd. When 
he pulled the curd away, little threads were 
drawn out to the length of half an inch or 
more. This he called the " acid test," which 
showed that the cnrd was in the risji:ht condi- 
tion to be made into cheese. 

Of course only a part of the milk had turned 
into curd ; the rest was ivhey, that was drawn 
off and run into tanks. Each man who had 
delivered one hundred pounds of milk was 
given a check for seventy-five pounds of the 
whey. It is fed to hogs. About two hours 
from the time that the milk was put into the 
vats^ the whey was drawn off. 



62 HOW WE ARE FED 

One of the men now took a long knife and 
cut the curd into oblong cakes. These he fre- 
quently lifted and turned over. After contin- 
uing this for about twenty minutes, the pieces 
of curd were put into a small mill, placed on a 
board over the vat, and the curd was chopped 
into strips from one to six inches long and from 
one-half an inch to an inch thick. Salt was scat- 
tered over the mass by one man, while another 
pitched it about with a three-pronged wooden 
fork. The man told me that he used three 
pounds of salt to each thousand pounds of milk. 

Next, a piece of cloth was placed on a board 
about sixteen inches square. Two circular metal 
frames or bands, about six inches high, were 
fitted one within the other and placed on the 
cloth. The frame was filled with curd, covered 
by a cloth, and another set placed on top of it 
until there were five. They were then put on 
a table directly under a block which was fas- 
tened to a screw. By turning the screw the 
block was pressed against the top board, and 
so each frame of curd Avas pressed. I saw the 
whey running out as the squeezing went on. 



J 



CHEESE 53 

The superintendent told us that the curd would 
be left in the press until the next day. 

We were then taken into the room where the 
cheese " ripens." Here we saw large racks reach- 
ing nearly to the ceiling, filled with double rows 
of cheeses. The smallest ones weighed but 
three pounds, while the largest weighed fifty 
pounds. It may take but a few days and it 
may take many months to ^' ripen " a cheese. 
It depends upon the flavor wanted. The man 
said that in England '^ strong " cheese is gen- 
erally liked, while in our country " mild " cheese 
is preferred. 

I asked how much cheese five thousand pounds 
of milk would make, and was told that it would 
make between four and five hundred pounds. 

On the way home Uncle Ben told us that 
although our country is a great dairy country, 
Ave import certain kinds of cheese from Europe. 
He told us how the Swiss people pasture their 
cattle on the steep mountain sides, and that in 
every little mountain valley cheese is made, some 
of which finds its way over the mountains and 
across the sea to the United States. 



THE FISHING INDUSTRY 

Have you ever stood by the side of a stream 
and watched the fish dart from one shadow of 
overhanging rock into another, or swim lazily at i 
the bottom of some deep pool ? How gracefully 
they move and turn ! How like water jewels 
they flash as the sunlight falls upon them ! 

Most streams and lakes, like the ocean, contain 
fish. So we have fresh-water and salt-water 
fish. There are a few bodies of water so full of 
salt that fish cannot live in them. Do you know 
of any such bodies of water ? 

Most of the fish used as food come from the 
ocean. In this, and in most other countries, 
there are many men who do nothing but fish, in 
order that other people may be supplied with 
this sort of food. They do not depend upon 
hook and line alone, but use nets also. 

Nets are great sacks made of cord, knotted 
or woven together in such a way as to leave 

I 



i 



THE FISHING INDUSTRY 



55 



spaces or meshes. These meshes are not bio- 
enough to allow large fish to escape. Somethnes 
the fishermen go out in rowboats some distance 



.. 4 


i 






WS^ ' %h £ 


\.l ■ 


■"'■^:'-\-^ 



Fig. 18. — Drying Nt^ts. 



from shore and then throw the net into the 
Avater. Corks or floats keep the upper edge of 
the net near the surface, while weights hold the 
lower edge on the bottom. RojDes are fastened 



56 HOW WE ARE FED 

to each end, and so it is drawn toward the shore. 
How the fishermen wish that they could see to 
the bottom of the restless water and know what 
their harvest is to be ! When the boats have 
almost reached the shore, horses are sometimes 
driven into the water and hitched to the ropes. 
At last the net is dragged out upon the sands 
and the uncertainty is past. 

Look ! Within the folds of the net is a count- 
less number of fishes, each jumping, squirming, 
wriggling, trying to get back to its ocean 
home. They are of many sizes, shapes, and 
colors. Those not good for food, together 
with the smallest ones, are thrown back into 
the water. 

Sometimes a net called a "dip-net" is 
dropped from a fishing schooner and drawn 
about a " school " of fish. I have seen many 
barrels of fish brought up at one time in this 
w^ay. 

The fishermen keep a close watch for the 
appearance of these " schools," you may be sure. 
Whales and dolphins pursue them, and gulls and 
cormorants circle overhead, for they, too, are 



THE FISHING INDUSTRY 



57 



fishers. Their appearance helps the men to tell 
Avhere the " schools " are. There is a great rush 
for the fishing grounds when they are sighted. 
The white-sailed schooners skim over the waters 
almost like a flock of birds. 




Fig. 19. — A Fishiiio; Schooner. 



Large quantities of fish are caught by a 
method called trawl fishing. This may be carried 
on miles from the shore. How do you suppose 
it is done ? To a very long and strong line, 
many shorter ones, each with a hook at the end, 



58 



HOW WE ARE FED 



are attached. These lines, to which large buoys 
are fastened, are left in the water for several 
hours, and then fishermen in flat-bottomed boats 
called dories row out from the schooner and 
examine them. The lines are then reset and 




Fi(i. 20. — Splittinjj; Codfish. 

the lish taken to the schooner to be dressed. 
This is a common method of catching codfish, 
Avhich is carried on during summer and win- 
ter alike. Storms and fogs are likely to 
occur while the men are out in their little 



THE FISHING INDUSTRY 59 

boats, making tlieir work full of danger as 
well as of hardship. 

Many of the fish are packed in ice and sold 
fresh, wiiile others are cured on the boats or 
on shore. Some of the fishing schooners carry 
great quantities of salt when they start out on a 
trip. The fish are dressed and packed in this. 
Sometimes they are packed in brine, and along 
the shores of some countries they are strung on 
poles to dry. 

Codfish are dried in great quantities along the 
New England coast by placing them on frames 
made of strips of wood and raised a little above 
the wharf, eo that the air can circulate freely. 
When the skin and bones are removed and the 
flesh cut into strips, it is called " shredded " 
codfish. 

The principal food-fish are the cod, mackerel, 
herring, halibut, shad, salmon, sardines, and 
whitefish. Whitefish are caught in the Great 
Lakes. To this list the lobster may be added, 
although it is not a fish. 

A common method of catching lobsters is to 
sink a box made of lath to the bottom, wliere 



60 



HOW WE ARE FED 



they crawl about on the rocks. A fish head is 
placed in the box for -bait. The lobsters crawl 
in and are likely to remain until the box is 
examined. 

Lobster steamers, fitted np with tanks contain- 




Fio. 21. — Drying Codfisli. 

ing salt water, run from Nova Scotia and New- 
foundland to Boston and New York. Here those 
not wanted are placed on cars containing similar 
tanks and sent to interior cities. In this way 
fresh lobsters are served thousands of miles 
from Avhere they were caught. 



THE FISHING INDUSTRY 61 

A lobster that would cost ns from twenty-five 
to seventy-five cents brings the fisherman not 
more than ten cents. 

Along our New England coast there are many 
towns engaged extensively in fishing. Portland, 
Gloucester, Boston, and Provincetown are among 
the number. Gloucester is the most important 
fishing town in the United States. From it 
fishing schooners go as far as Newfoundland, 
Greenland, Iceland, and even to the coast of 
Ireland. There are also important fisheries on 
the Pacific coast, from San Francisco to Alaska. 
Here the salmon are taken in great numbers. 
They weigh from twenty to one hundred pounds. 
The fish are canned and shipped to all parts of 
the country. Besides being caught in nets and 
traps and on lines many are caught in " fish 
wheels." These are fastened to the stern of a 
boat and revolve in the water. The fish are 
caught in pockets and dropped in the boat as 
the wheel brings them up over it. 

There are very extensive fisheries along the 
shores of the British Isles and on the western 
coast of Europe. Fishing is the chief industry 



62 HOW WE ARE FED 



in the towns along the coast of Norway. Th 
air is full of the odor of fish, while drying fish, 
nets, and boats are everyw^here in sight. 

Although the supply of fish in the ocean is 
very great, it is diminishing, especially near the 
shore. Most countries now pay considerable at- 
tention to tlie raising of both fresh and salt water 
fishes, and they have passed laws regulating 
fishing. Eggs are hatched in great hatcheries ^ 
from which the young fish are taken where they 
are most needed. 

The great ocean is free to all to sail over or 
fish in at will. There is a narrow strip along 
the shore three miles wide, wdiich belong;s to the 
country which it borders. The men of other 
countries are not allowed to fish there. 

The fisherman is a brave and sturdy man. 
His life is full of danger. He battles constantly 
with the winds and the waves. Fogs may 
hide the sharp rocks which seem to w^ait for a 
chance to destroy his little vessel. Sometimes 
icebergs or great ocean steamers sink his boat 
and he is never seen again. 

When storms are raging and night has settled 






THE FISHING INDUSTRY 63 

over sea and land, and angry waves are dash- 
ing themselves into foam against the shore, 
the mothers, wives, and children look anxionsly 
from their cottage windows toward the sea, and 
pray that their loved ones may retnrn to them 
in safety. 



OYSTER FARMING 

It sounds strange to speak of farming in the 
ocean, but there are many and large oyster 
farms all along our coast. Some of these farms 
are covered by water all of the time and some 
are uncovered when the tide is low. Oyster 
farms are far more profitable than are those 
upon which corn and wheat are raised. 

This is a new industry in our country because 
civilized people have not lived here very long, 
but it is a very old one in some parts of the 
world. As long ago as the seventh century a . 
Roman knight raised oysters for the market, * 
and it is said that the business made him very 
wealthy. 

You will understand better about the cultiva- 
tion of oysters, if I tell you first how the;; 
live and grow in their natural homes. 

Except during the first few days of their 

64 



OYSTER FARMING Q5 

lives, oysters are prisoners. They cannot move 
about freely from place to place as fishes and 
ijiost animals can, but they are attached to 
rocks, to the shells of their dead relatives, and 
to other objects. How, then, do you suppose 
they get their food? They grow in immense 
numbers, and they crowd one another more than 
people do in the tenement houses in our great 
cities. In fact most of them are soon crowded 
out, and they die, leaving room for the rest to 
grow upon their empty homes. In this way 
the oyster beds spread out. 

These oyster beds are not found in very deep 
water, bat rather along the shore, generally near 
the mouth of some river. As I have told you, 
they often live where they are uncovered when 
the tide goes out. You can see from this that 
it is not very difficult to gather oysters, so that, 
partly on this account, man has used them for 
food for ages. 

When the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the 
shores of New England, they found that the 
Indians used oysters very commonly. All along 
the coast were great heaps of the shells. At 



6Q HOW WE ARE FED 

the very first Thanksgiving dinner given in 
America, oysters were served. 

Oysters used to be so plentiful on these 
natural beds that they were very cheap. In 
some places where the winter weather was cold 
enough to freeze the water along the shore, 
people cut holes in the ice and gathered them 
by means of long-handled rakes. 

In a single year an oyster will produce more 
than a million young ones. Just think of it ! 
If all of this family grew up, they would fill a 
room fourteen feet in each dimension. 

These young oysters are ver}j small. They 
are called " spat." Most of them are drifted 
away by waves and currents, or devoured by 
larger sea animals. The few that escape soon 
attach themselves to some object, so getting a 
chance to begin the battle of life. 

If oysters are caught at all times of the year 
it does not give them a chance to produce their 
young, and this, as well as catching the young 
ones themselves, has destroyed many of the 
natural beds. In order to keep up the supply 
of this food men commenced oyster farming. 



OYSTER FARMING 67 

You see how our daily needs and desires lead 
to the establishment of great industries. 

The oyster farmer prepares his farm in 
various ways. He places clean oyster shells, 
stones, trays, bundles of sticks, and other things 
on the bottom, so that the oysters may find 
something to which to attach themselves. Then 
he places the young oysters or "spat" on these 
objects. When trays are used, several are 
placed one upon another and bound together 
by means of a chain. These trays are taken 
up from time to time in order to gather the 
oysters that are ready for market. 

Stones are sometimes piled on the bottom 
and the '' spat " are placed in the crevices be- 
tween them. Often stakes are planted in a 
somewhat circular form. Cords are attached 
to the stakes, to which bundles of sticks are 
fastened in such a way as to keep them a little 
above the bottom. Young oysters attach them- 
selves to these sticks, which may be drawn \r^ 
when the proper time comes. 

Shells are used more commonly than other 
things. They are taken from the restaurants 



68 HOW WE ARE FED 

and hotels to the farms in boat loads, to 
scattered over the bottom. 

The yonng oysters grow at very different 
rates. In two years they may grow to be six 
inches in length, or it may take several years to 
reach that size. They grow more rapidly on 
the artificial beds, and are better in quality also. 
The starfish is one of the greatest enemies of 
the oyster, large numbers of which it destroys 
every year. 

During the fishing season the oyster men go 
to the beds in their boats and scoop the oysters 
up from the bottom. This is called dredging. 
The scoops with their loads of oysters are drawn 
to the deck of the boat by machinery. Some- 
times the oysters are gathered by means of long 
tongs. 

As the oysters are usually in clusters, these 
have to be broken up. For this purpose a sort 
of a hammer known as a culling won is used. 
The oysters are broken apart and sorted. Some- 
times the oyster man makes three grades and 
sometimes four. 

Oysters are not the only things drawn up in 



OYSTER FARMING 69 

the dredge. Starfish, lobsters, and various 
kinds of fishes are gathered in. The starfish 
are killed and the rest thrown back. 

The oysters are heaped up in great piles on 
the deck of the boat. Sacks and barrels are 
filled with them, and many car loads are 
shipped daily from the cities near the fishing 
grounds. Chesapeake Bay is the center of the 
oyster industry in our country. Find it. There 
are oyster beds, however, all along both the 
Atlantic and the Pacific coasts. 

Great quantities of oysters are canned near 
where they are caught. Getting them out of 
their shells is not an easy matter. For this 
purpose a knife is used. This work is called in 
the South " shucking oysters." Canning oys- 
I ters is an important industry in the city of 
i Baltimore. Have you ever seen cans of oysters 
that came from there ? 



A RICE FIELD 

When you do not feel quite satisfied with 
your breakfast, dinner, or supper, and think i 
that there should be a greater variety of food ' 
on the table, just come with me and we will | 
visit some of the boys and girls of far-away] 
China. What do you suppose their chief article ' 
of food is ? Rice. Rice in the morning, rice 
at noon, and rice at night. Rice from the 
beginning to the end of the year. In the 
poorer families a bit of dried fish and some 
vegetables are usually eaten with it. Those 
who can afford such things have bits of pre- 
served ginger, mushrooms, and barley cakes 
with the rice. Of course the rich people have 
other things to eat, but most of the people of 
China are poor. 

In the fertile portions of China the people 
live very close together. Gardens take the 
place of farms. Workmen often receive no 
more than ten cents a day. On this account 

70 



A RICE FIELD 71 

they cannot afford the variety of food that we 
have, but must be content with whatever is 
cheap and nourishing for their labor. If the 
rice crop were to fail, the Chinese would suffer. 
You will see how important this food is to 
them, when I tell you that they are forbidden 
by law to sell rice to other countries. 

Perhaps you are wondering where the rice 
that we use in this country comes from. Rice 
is grown in great quantities in Japan, Corea, 
Indo-China, Ceylon, India, the Philippines, the 
Hawaiian Islands, and in our Gulf states. 

Rice is the chief food of one half the peo23le 
of the world. Although we raise large quanti- 
ties, we joroduce only about one half of what 
we use. It is a kind of grain which will not 
thrive on the fertile Western prairies where corn, 
oats, and wheat grow. It needs a warm climate 
and a great deal of water. For this reason the 
rice fields are found on the marshy lands near 
the coast, and by the banks of rivers, where they 
can be easily flooded. Some rice is raised on 
the uplands, but not so successfully as on the 
lowlands. 



72 HOW WE ARE FED 



I 



Canals are dug from the streams through the 
farms, and from these smaller ditches branch 
off so as to reach all parts. They are so 
arranged that the farmer can turn the water 
on or off whenever he wishes. On some of 




Fig. 22. — a Rice Field. —Observe tlie Canal. 

the farms, wells furnish the water to the 
canals. 

In the Gulf states the fields are plowed in 
the winter, and the rice is sown between the 
first of April and the middle of May. Some- 
times the seed is sown broadcast, as wheat is, 



A RICE FIELD 73 

and sometimes it is planted in regular drills or 
trenches about twelve inches apart. 

The Japanese sow the seed in gardens, and 
when the plants are eight or ten inches high, 
they are pulled up and transplanted to the 
fields. The men work right in the water, for 
the fields are flooded at the time. 

In our country the farmer floods the field as 
soon as the seeds are planted, allowing the 
w^ater to remain five or six days. When the 
young blade of rice is a few inches high, the field 
is again flooded. After the second leaf appears 
on the stalk, the water is turned on and left 
for twenty or thirty days. After the land dries 
the crop is hoed. The fields are irrigated from 
time to time, until about eight days before the 
harvest, w4iich generally occurs in August. 

When full grown, the stalks are from one to 
six feet in height, with long, slender leaves. 
The kernels grow much as those of wheat and 
oats do. 

On account of the fields being so wet, rice, 
in most countries, is cut by hand. In China 
and Japan small curved sickles are used, and 



74 HOW WE ARE FED 

the grain is bound up in very small bundles. 
In Louisiana and some other parts of the 
South, regular harvesters are used. They have 
very broad wheels. Why ? 

After the grain has been bound into bundles, 
these are set up in double rows to dry. This 
is called shocking the rice. The grain is then 






Fig. 23. — Harvesting Rice. 



put through a thrashing machine, to separate it 
from the straw. 

Rice kernels are covered by a husk. Before 
the husk is removed the grain is often called 
paddy rice. Removing the hulls or husks is 
called kulling. The hulling machine is a long 
tube into one end of which the rice is poured. 
Within the tube are ribs which revolve rapidly. 



A RICE FIELD 75 

As the kernels pass between tliese the hnlls 
are taken off. 

If you were passing through a Chinese vil- 
lage, you might hear sounds like those produced 
when a man pounds with a mallet on a great 
piece of timber. On searching for the sounds, 
you would find that they came from the rice 
mill. The mill consists of a portion of a log 
hollowed out and placed upright. In the hol- 
low a quantity of rice is held. A piece of 
timber, fastened to a pivot, extends in a hori- 
zontal position with one end over the mill. To 
this end another timber is fastened in an upright 
position. A Chinaman gets on to the end of the 
long timber which is farthest from the mill. 
This raises the end with the upright. He then 
jumps off and the upright falls, striking uj^on 
the rice. In this way the hulls are worn off. 

After hulling, the grain is carefully screened, 
in order to remove the hulls, the broken and 
very small kernels, and the rice flour. This 
latter makes good cattle food. 

Perhaps you have noticed that rice kernels 
have a bluish appearance. This is not natural. 



76 HOW WE ARE FED 

but is the result of polishing. The polishing 
removes much of the best part of the grain, 
but the rice sells for a higher price simply on 
account of its appearance. 

The polishing machine is cylindrical or drum- 
like in shape. Moosehide or sheepskin is 
tacked to the cylinder. It is made to revolve 
rapidly, so that the kernels are polished as they 
pass over the skin. After being polished the 
kernels are run through screens and sorted. 
The rice is then put up in barrels or sacks and 
shipped. 



HOW SUGAR IS MADE 

This picture represents one of the beginnings 
of the great industry of sugar making. The 
small objects which you see in the trenches 
are pieces of sugar cane. These " cuttings," as 



Fig. 24. — Sowing Sugar Seed. 

they are called, are covered with soil. They 
soon sproutj and from them grow the tall, wav- 
ing fields of cane, which resemble cornfields. 
The canes are taller than cornstalks, however. 

77 



78 



HOW WE ARE FED 



How high do you thmk those shown in the 
picture are ? 

In about ten months after planting the cane is 
ready to cut. In the Southern states this work 
usually begins about the middle of October. 

The canes are jointed, as cornstalks are, and 




Fig. 25. — Cutting Sugar Cane. 



the spongy substance between the joints is filled 
with a sweet juice. It is from this juice or 
sap that cane sugar is made. I have seen 
children chew pieces of the cane, and enjoy it 
as you do candy ; for this use it is sometimes 
sold in stores in the South. 



HOW SUGAR IS MADE 81 

After the canes are cut they are hauled to the 
mill or sugarhouse on wagons. On the large 
plantations tram cars sometimes run right into 
the fields. 

At the mill the canes are run between heavy 
rollers, which squeeze out the sap. Sometimes 
as many as seventy -five pounds of sap are ob- 
tained from one hundred pounds of cane. The 
crushed stalks are used in the mill for fuel, and 
the ashes are returned to the land to fertilize it. 

When the juice is first pressed out, it is not 
at all clear in color. It is then placed in great 
vats or kettles and heated. This heating 
causes the water which is in the sap to evapo- 
rate, and it also brings some of the impurities 
to the top, where they are skimmed off. When 
the evaporating has been finished, there are two 
products, molasses and brown sugar. 

The sugar must next be refined. For this 
purpose it is usually sent to cities outside of 
the sugar belt. There are great refineries in 
New Orleans, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, 
and other cities. 

When the raw sugar, as it is called, reaches 



82 HOW WE ARE EED 

the refinery, which is generally a tall building, 
it is taken to the top story and dissolved in hot 
water. It then passes through bags which act 
as filters^ and through a great cylinder which 
contains burned bones, known as hone-hlack. 



Fig. 27. — A Sugar Mill. 

You remember that I told you that the bones 
of the cattle were saved. This is one of the 
uses to which they are put. When the liquid 
comes out of this bone filter it is a perfectly 
clear sirup, which is then crystallized. 



HOW SUGAR IS MADE 83 

You know that we buy refined sugar in three 
forms : granulated sugar, loaf sugar, and pul- 
verized sugar. When granulated sugar is 
wanted, the crystals are placed in a great 
drum, which revolves until they are thoroughly 
dried in the right form. To make loaf sugar, 
the crystals are pressed into molds, then dried, 
and cut into the size desired. In powdered 
sugar they are simply ground to a powdered 
condition. 

Think how much labor is required to produce 
sugar, and yet you can buy it for five cents a 
pound. 

There are great fields of sugar cane in the 
Gulf states, in Cuba, in the Hawaiian Islands, 
in the East Indies, in India, and in other warm, 
moist parts of the world. We buy a great deal 
of sugar from Cuba, and from the Hawaiian 
Islands. To what city do you think the sugar 
from the Hawaiian Islands is sent ? 



BEET SUGAR 

Although the cane fields of the moist, hot 
countries yield great quantities of sugar, there 
are other sources from which this useful product 
comes. In the year 1747 a German scientist 
discovered that sugar can be made from beets, 
and now about two thirds of our supply come 
from these plants. 

The sugar beet is not just like Ihe plant of 
the same name which we raise for table use. 
It is white, and sometimes weighs as much as 
ten or fifteen pounds. Beets do not need so 
much water nor so much heat as sugar cane, 
so they can be raised in Germany, France, 
Austria, Russia, and other countries, as well 
as in California, Utah, and Nebraska, in our 
own land. 

In some parts of California there are fields 
of beets stretching for miles. The seeds are 
planted in rows, which, after the plants have 

84 



BEET SUGAR 85 

come up, are thinned. In four or five months 
from the tune the seeds are planted, the beets 
are ready to harvest. 

On most of the large ranches the beets are 
dug by machinery. Men then move back and 
forth in the fields, cutting off the leaves and a 
little of the upper part of the beet, for this con- 
tains too much mineral matter to be of value in 
making sugar. The workmen use large knives, 
and they walk on their knees. 

The beets are now taken to the factory in 
wagons, or, if it is far away, they are sent 
on trains. When the loads of beets reach the 
factory, they are weighed. The teamsters then 
drive up an inclined plane to a plank roadway. 
There are generally several of these. On each 
side of the road or platform are deep V-shaped 
trenches with wooden sides, in which streams 
of water run. When the wagon has reached 
the right spot, the platform upon which it rests 
is raised in a slanting position, and the beets 
fall into the trench. 

A basket full of beets is taken from each 
load and tested, to see how much sugar they 



86 HOW WE ARE FED 

contain^ for this determines the price to be 
paid. 

The stream of water in the trench carries the 
beets along, just as they would be carried in a 
brook. This, you see, is a quick and easy way 
of washing them. 

The streams of water carry the beets into the 
factory, where they are cut up into strips by 
machinery. The juice is then washed out in 
vats containing warm water, and is boiled down 
in great tanks. The raw sugar is refined much 
as the cane sugar is. After the sugar has been 
dried, it is run through spouts into sacks held 
open to catch it as it comes out. One hundred 
pounds are put into each sack. One workman 
sews the sacks up and another wheels them to 
the wareroom. Train loads are carried away to 
be distributed in the parts of our country that 
do not produce sugar. 



MAPLE SUGAR 



You would enjoy helping to make some 
maple sugar, I am sure, so let us make a trip 
to the woods of Vermont or New York, where 
maple sugar is made from 
the sap of the sugar-maple 
tree. 

You will need your cap 
and mittens, as the sugar 
season is the early spring, 
when there is yet snow on 
.the ground. Besides, some 
of the work is done at nidit, 
and you will not wish to 
miss that. 

m J* J 1 /, Fig. 28. — Tappins a Tree. 

ihe owner or the "sugar 
bush " bores holes into the trees a short distance 
from the ground, into which he slips small 
spouts, called "spiles." 

This is called tapinncj the trees. Underneath 

87 




88 



HOW WE ARE FED 



the spout a pail is placed. During the day the 
sap trickles out and runs into the pail. During 
the colder hours of the night the sap flows 
slowly, if at all. Sometimes it is so cold that 
little sap runs for two or three days at a time. 
The sap is collected in barrels and drawn on 





m 


m 


mM 




P"^ 


^PF ^1 



Fig. 21). — Oxen hauling Sap. 



sleds to the camp or place where it is to be 
boiled down. This is done in great pans called 
evaporators^ which may be five or six feet wide, 
and fifteen feet long. They are divided into 
sections, and these are connected by means of 
little openings. 



MAPLE SUGAR 



89 



The sap flows into one end of the evaporator and 
follows a zigzag path through the different sec- 
tions. By flowing slowly over so large a surface, 
evaporation goes on rapidly and the sap is changed 
to sirup by the time it has finished its journey. 

The sirup is put up in cans, or boiled down 




Fig. 30. — Sap-yoke and Pails for gatheriug Sap. 

into sugar, which is molded into small cakes, 
and brings a high price. 

" Sugaring off," as the boiling down of the 
sap is called, is quite an event. Often a number 
of people will be invited to go to the sugar- 
house and take part in the operation. 



90 HOW WE ARE FED 

Before the modern evaporator came into use 
" sugaring olf " always occurred at night. Tiiis 
was necessary, because during the day the sap 
buckets had to be attended to. The young peo- 
ple would sing songs, tell stories, and eat sugar. 

Some of the '^ sugar bushes " contain but a 
few trees and some contain one or two thousand 
or even more. A tree will yield from one to six 
pounds of sugar during a season. 

Our country produces great quantities of 
sugar every year, but we use so much that we 
have to buy much more than we manufacture at 
home. It was not always in such common use, 
however, because people in olden times did not 
understand how to make it cheaply. 

Long, long ago sugar was used only as a 
medicine. Don't you wish that all medicine 
to-day was as good as sugar ? About seven 
hundred years ago an Italian nobleman died and Jj 
left to his relatives, among other things, six 
pounds of sugar. His will caused considerable 
comment among the people, who said that no 
one family should be allowed to have so much 
sugar in its possession. 



WHERE SALT COMES FROM 

The Arab, journeying over the yellow sands, 
riding upon the back of his faithful " ship of 
the desert," often looks longingly for some 
sign of water to cool his j^arched lips. The 
sailor may ride upon the beautiful blue waters 
of the ocean in his white- winged ship ; but 
although there is nothing but water to greet 
his eyes, he cannot drink it, for it is bitter 
to the taste. 

If you were to place a quantity of ocean 
water over a fire and evaporate it, there would 
remain a white substance. This is common 
salt. You see that it is as necessary to pro- 
vide fresh water when one wishes to cross the 
ocean, as it is if one is going to cross the 
desert. 

Most streams and lakes contain fresh water, 
so you will wonder why the waters of the 
ocean are briny. The rocks and soil of the 

91 



92 HOW WE ARE FED 

earth contain salt, and the streams wash it 
from the land. Each one carries so little that 
we do not notice it, but they have worked so 
steadily and so long, that they have carried a 
great amount to the sea. None of it can es- 
cape, so the ocean gets more and more briny. 

No healthy person would ever think of eat- 
ing salt alone as a food, and yet our food 
would taste very unsatisfactory without it. 
Farmers supply their cattle and horses with 
salt, and wild animals search for it in the 
forests, and lick it from the soil with their 
tongues. 

Salt is so important to us that I want to 
tell you about some of the ways in which 
men obtain it. 

Sometimes sea water is placed in great vats 
and evaporated. This leaves the salt, which 
is then refined. You know that the sun's heat I 
causes the waters of a shallow pond to evapo- 
rate during warm weather. Shallow basins are 
often scooped out along the coast, and the 
waters which fill them are then shut off from 
the larger body. In time the water evapo- 



WHERE SALT COMES FROM 93 

rates, and the salt, which has formed in thin 
layers, is collected. 

I said that most lakes are fresh-water 
bodies. There are some, however, that are 
very salty. Great Salt Lake is one of these. 
Streams flow into it, but none flows out. If 
you were to bathe in the waters of this lake, 
you would find that your body would not 
sink. 

I have seen great piles of glistening salt 
along the shore of Great Salt Lake which 
had been obtained by evaporation. A railroad 
runs beside the lake, and the salt is loaded 
upon the cars to be hauled away. When the 
people first settled in Utah, they used to drive 
to the lake in wagons to get a supply of salt. 

Although the ocean and a few lakes contain 
immense quantities of this useful article, we 
get most of our supply from other sources. 

In the western part of New York State, at 
some distance below the surface of the earth, 
there is a thick layer of salt. Wells are drilled 
down to this; water is pumped into them, and 
then pumped out again as brine. This brine 



94 HOW WE ARE FED 

is evaporated in large pans made of iron, two 
quarts of brine yielding about a pound of salt. 

In China salt has been obtained in this way 
for hundreds and even thousands of years. 
Though they had little machinery to work 
with in those days, yet hy patient, steady 
effort, they drilled wells two thousand and even 
three thousand feet in depth. From twenty-five 
to forty years were recpiired to drill some of 
these wells. Those who commenced them knew 
that they Avere not likely to enjoy the fruits 
of their labor and that others must get the 
benefit of what they did. What does this 
show about these people ? What benefits are 
you receiving from what others have done ? 

Salt is also mined as coal and iron are. 
This is called rock salt. It is obtained in 
Germany, Poland, Austria, India, the United 
States, and in many other countries. 

One of the most interesting salt fields of 
the world is in the southeastern part of Cali- 
fornia. It is on the Colorado Desert, near the 
Colorado River. This was once a part of the 
ocean floor and the rocks contain much salt. 



WHERE SALT COMES FROM 



97 



Water seeping through the earth dissolves the 
salt and brings it to the surface at this place. 
What happens to the water? 

This salt field covers an area of about one 
thousand acres, to a depth of from one to eight 




Fig. 32. — Loading Cars with Salt. Salton, California. 



inches. You can see by the picture that it looks 
more like a field of snow and ice than one of 
salt. The bright sunlight is reflected from its 
surface with such power that it hurts one's eyes. 
A great plow drawn by a steam engine 



98 HOW WE ARE FED 

moves over this dazzling field, and throws the 
salt up in furrows. It is then piled up, loaded 
on to cars, and taken to sheds, where it is puri- 
fied. Indians and Japanese do most of the work. 

In order to purify the brines they are boiled 
in iron pans and treated in various ways to 
make them fit for table use. When evapora- 
tion is rapid, the salt crystals are quite small, 
but slower evaporation produces larger ones. 
Rock salt is dissolved in water and then evap- 
orated. To get the finest of salt, the crystals 
must be ground. When salt is to be used for 
other purposes than to season food, not so nuicli 
pains are taken. Name other uses of salt. 

In olden times, when salt was not so easily 
obtained as it is to-day, it was regarded in some 
countries as a luxury. This seems strange, does 
it not ? At one time the Chinese made it into 
little cakes, stamped the image of the emperor 
upon it, and used it as money. In Arabia those 
who together ate food which had been salted, 
believed that this established a special bond of 
friendship between them. This led to the old 
saying, " There is salt between us." 



MACARONI AND VERMICELLI 

Have you ever wondered as you have looked 
at the hollow sticks of macaroni hi the stores or 
as you have eaten them at the table, how they 
were made hi that way, and what they were 
made of? 

In Italy macaroni is a very important article 
of food, and its use is rapidly increasing in our 
own country. For a long time it was not made 
outside of Italy, where the city of Genoa was 
the center of the industry. Locate this city. 
Do you know what great man was born there ? 
Now macaroni and vermicelli are made in other 
countries. There are a few factories in the 
United States, but most of what we use still 
comes from Italy. 

In making these foods only the best hard 
wheat is used. 

After grinding the wheat, the bran is taken 
out and the flour is placed in a large wooden 

Lf '^ • ^" 



100 HOW WE ARE FED 

tub. Water is added, and the two are mixed by 
hand for a few minutes. In this tub a marble 
wheel about five feet in diameter and eighteen 
inches in thickness is fastened in an upright 
position. This wheel weighs about a ton. 

After the flour and water have been mixed, 
the wheel is set in motion by machinery, and it 
slowly circles around in the tub, pressing the 
dough under it. 

A man keeps walking in front of the wheel, 
moving the dough from the edges of the tub 
and placing it directly in the path of it. This 
work of pressing the flour into a paste continues 
for a little more than half an hour. 

The wheel is then stopped and the paste, 
which is quite stiff, is cut into cakes about a 
foot square and from one to three inches in 
thickness. 

These are put into an iron cylinder heated 
by steam. In the bottom of the cylinder is a 
copper plate filled with holes having the centers 
filled. A cover fitted to a great screw which 
turns by machinery is placed on top. This 
slowly, but steadily, presses the paste downward. 



MACARONI AND VP:RMICELLI 



101 



It is thus forced through these openings, and of 
course comes out in the form of round, hollow 
pipes. 

As these pij)es issue from the cylinder, they 
are straightened out on a wooden tray or plat- 
form, and with a large, sharp knife cut into 




Fig. 33. — Drying Macaroni in Italy. 

lengths of about three feet. They are then 
taken to a drying room and spread on wire 
frames covered with oiled paper. Here they 
are left for about five days, after which they are 
placed in boxes and are ready to ship. 

The only difference between macaroni and 



102 HOW WE ARE FED 

vermicelli is that the pipes of vermicelli are 
very small and are not hollow. 

When vermicelli is wanted, two plates are 
placed on the bottom of the press. The under 
one is of iron and contains holes about one inch 
in diameter. The upper one is of copper and 
contains cjroiqos of very small openings. There 
are sometimes eighty of these openings in a 
group. When the plates are screwed together, 
the groups of small holes are directly above the 
larger openings. 

As the paste is pressed, it passes through the 
little holes and then issues from the larger ones; 
this keeps each little group of pipes somewhat 
apart from the others. 

Saffron is added to the paste to color it, and 
the great golden mass is quite a pretty sight as 
it steadily lengthens. 

The workman cuts off six or seven feet of it 
at a time ; and holding it above his head with 
one hand, he shakes it out with the other, as one 
might shake" the folds of a piece of silk. The 
pipes tangle up very little. They are cut into 
lengths of about eighteen inches. 



MACARONI AND VERJMICELLI 103 

It is then taken to the drying room and 
spread out on the trays just as the macaroni is. 
A handful of the vermicelli is taken at a time, 
and by a peculiar twist of the arm it is placed 
on the paper in a form something like that of 
the letter n. After drying for five days it is 
packed and shipped. 



ON A COFFEE PLANTATION 

Juan and Lupe live in a beautiful valley 
where palm and banana trees wave their broad 
leaves in the breeze. It is never cold there, so 
that many kinds of plants and flowers grow 
out of doors which we do not see in our country 
except in greenhouses. On clear days they can 
see lofty mountains far to the westward, which 
sometimes wear caps of white. 

Juan is fourteen years old and Lupe is 
twelve. Their skin is much darker than yours, 
and they have bright black eyes and black hair. 
Their father owns a great coffee plantation in 
Brazil, not far from the city of Rio Janeiro. 

There are many men, women, and children 
employed on the plantation, and Juan and Lupe 
enjoy roaming about from place to place and 
watching them at their work. 

In the nursery they see men planting the 
coffee seeds in the rich soil. There are some 

104 



ON A COFFEE PLANTATION 



105 



plants that have just come up, and some that 
are ready to transplant. They are set out in 
rows, six or eight feet apart each way, and 
sometimes more. 

The trees would grow much taller than those 




Fig. 34. — A Coffee Nursery. 



you see in the picture, if they were not kept 
pruned. Do you know why they are prevented 
from growing tall ? Whenever you look at a 
coffee plantation, you see the dark green foliage 
of the tree, which is an evergreen. Lupe is 



106 



HOW WE ARE FED 



very fond of the blossoms. They are clear 
white and very fragrant. 

A tree will yield a small amount the second 
year after planting, but it will not produce a 




Fig. 35.— Picking Coffee. 

full crop for five or more years. Two pounds 
is a good average crop for a tree. 

The children like to watch the pickers as 
they go from tree to tree. Many of them are 
about their own age. Some carry a sack slung 
over the shoulders, and others cai'ry baskets or 
pails. The herries must be picked by hand, for 



ON A COFFEE rLANTATION 



10' 



they do not all ripen at once. They are dark 
scarlet in color and look a little like cranberries. 
A good picker gathers about three bushels in a 
day. The pickers are given a check every time 
they fill a basket. Sometimes Juan tends to 
this work, and he enjoys it very much. At the 



:i»^.^ 






Fig. oG. — Coffee Berries. 

end of each week the pickers are paid accord- 
ing to the number of checks they have. 

Within the berry are two kernels or seeds, 
wnth their flat sides together. These are called 
" coffee beans." It is these beans from which 
the drink is made. 

The picking is but a small part of the work 



108 ' HOW WE ARE FED 



i 



of preparing coffee for the market. The first 
operation is removing the pulp. This used to 
be done by tramping on the berries, but now 
it is done in a better way. 

The berries are thrown into a large tank filled 
with water, which carries them through a pipe 
to the pulping machine. This machine removes 
the pulp and separates the beans. 

Next the beans are carried to a second tank, 
where they remain for about twenty-four hours, 
to wash off a sticky substance which covers the 
shell of the bean. 

If you have ever put beans or peas into a 
basin of water, you have noticed that nearly all 
of them sink, while a few float. These latter 
are the poor ones. This is the way in which 
the good and bad coffee beans are separated. 
A pipe carries off the seeds that float on the 
surface of the water. 

The beans are dried on cement floors upon 
which they are spread. This drying takes a 
long time. Before sunset each day the coffee 
must be carried under shelter, for the dew 
injures it. While they are drying, the workmen 



ON A COFFEE PLANTATIOX 109 

stir tliem. Sometimes artificial heat is used, 
but this is expensive. Juan's father has a 
watchman whose duty it is to guard the colfee 
at night, for it is very valuable. 

Each bean is covered by a strong shell, or 
hull, which has to be removed. The soaking 
has loosened this, and so it comes off easier 
than it otherwise would. Juan and Lupe often 
watch the wheels of the huller as they turn, 
moved by patient oxen. 

There are two wheels set upright over a 
circular box, into which the coffee is put. 
As it i3asses between the wheels and the bot- 
tom of the box, the hulls are removed. 
Underneath the hull is a thin skin, which is 
also taken off. 

In some countries people want the coffee 
dyed or colored. A bluish color is given to it 
by coating the wheels of the hulling machine 
with lead. 

The hulls are separated from the beans in 
a winnowing machine, and the coffee is then 
sorted. Often this is done by hand. The 
beans are spread out on a table, and girls and 



110 HOW WE ARE FED 

boys, and sometimes grown persons, sort it into 
several grades. 

Juan's father has this work done by machin- 
ery. The coffee is put into a cylinder, in the 




EiG. 37. — JSortiiig and sacking Coffee. 

bottom of which there are holes of different 
sizes by which it is graded. 

The last process is to sack the coffee and 
send it by raih^oad to Rio Janeiro. Of course 
it is neither roasted nor ground until it reaches 
its destination. 



ON A COFFEE PLANTATION 111 

We do not produce coffee in our country, 
but we are the greatest coffee drinkers in the 
world. A large irdvt of our sujDply comes 
from Brazil. Trace the course of the ship 
from Rio Janeiro to New York. Juan has 
often done this, and his father has promised 
to take him with him sometime, when he goes 
with a cargo of coffee. 

You naturally think that coffee of different 
names must come from different countries, or 
at least from different trees. This is not 
ahvays the case. Several brands may come 
froui the same tree. The name depends partly 
ui)on the size and the general appearance of the 
beans. 

Coffee is a native of the far East, but it has 
gradually been transplanted to other countries, 
until it is now very extensively used. Brazil, 
Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, the 
Hawaiian Islands, Java, Ceylon, and Arabia 
are coffee-raising countries. 

In 1551 coffee found its way to the city of 
Constantinople ; in 1652 it had reached London ; 
and in 1720 it was planted in the West Indies. 



112 HOW WE ARE FED 

You see it worked its way westward rather 
slowly. 

Several hundred years ago, coffee was very 
expensive, so that only the rich could afford to 
use it. Instead of drinking it at home, people 
went to '^coffeehouses," where it was served. 
To these " coffeehouses " men brought whatever 
news they had heard and told it to one another. 
In this way these places served about the same 
purpose that newspapers do now. 



THE TEA GARDENS OF CHINA 

At the bottom of the teapot you will find 
some leaves. Spread one of them out carefully. 
You can see that it was once long and slender, 
a little like willow leaves. It may have grown 
in some garden in far-away China, for we get 
a great deal of tea from that country. 

I have told you how close together the people 
live on the fertile plains of eastern China. 
There is so little room that many live on boats 
on the rivers and in the harbors. On this 
account their farms are not so large as ours. 

The tea trees in the gardens are about five 
or six feet high. If they were allowed to, they 
would reach a height of twenty-five feet ; but 
they are kept trimmed for the same reasons 
that the coffee trees are pruned. 

The trees are raised from seeds, and are 
generally planted on land which slopes toward 
the south. What advantage is this ? 

118 



114 HOW WE ARE FED 

In about three years after planting, the first 
crop of leaves can be gatliered. In China they 
are usually gathered four times each year, and 
the trees continue to yield for twenty-five or 
thirty years. 

. When the leaves are picked, they are full of 
sap or juice, and so have to be dried. The 
drying is usually done on trays made of bamboo. 
While they are drying, they are rubbed and 
rolled between the palms of the hands, so that 
they may dry more quickly and evenly. 

Next the leaves are placed, a few at a time, 
in iron -p-dus over a charcoal fire. They are 
left in these but a short time, for they are hot. 
This process is called '' firing." Sometimes 
the leaves are " fired " but once, and sometimes 
twice. 

The tea is then spread out, and broken bits of 
stems are removed. Some of the tea growers 
place the tea in baskets which are suspended 
over slow fires, for drying. 

If you were to look into some of tlie tea-hongs 
or houses where tea is cured and packed, you 
would find the tea dried in a very curious fash- 



THE TEA GARDENS OF CHINA HT 

ion. In one of the rooms you would see several 
Chinamen rolling and tossing balls about with 
their bare feet. The balls are about the size of 
footballs and are partly filled with tea. Although 
it looks like play, it is hard work. As the balls 
are tossed about, the tea leaves are given their 
rounded or twisted appearance. From time to 
time the workers stop and tie the bags ujd more 
closely at the neck. This method is used in 
making gunjjoivder tea. 

Black and green teas are not different varie- 
ties, but are produced by different methods of 
handling. 

In the great tea-hongs there are professional 
tasters, — that is, men who do nothing but 
sip tea from small cups, so as to grade it and 
fix its value. This is considered a very par- 
ticular line of work and requires an educated 
taste. 

The ocean atmosphere has a bad effect on tea, 
so that the very finest grades are seldom sent 
across the sea. When tea is to be shipped by 
water, it is placed in l^oxes lined with a sort 
of sheet lead. This protects the tea greatly. 



118 HOW WE ARE FED 

Most of the tea sent to the United States lands 
at San Francisco. Why ? How does it get to 
other parts of our country ? 

Great quantities of tea are pressed into the 
form of bricks and sent over mountains and 
across deserts into Russia. 

This is called " brick tea." The Russians 
are great tea drinkers, and whenever any one 
calls in Russia, tea is served. They call their 
teapot a samovar. 

Better tea is obtained from Ceylon and India 
than from China. In these countries Europeans 
have charge of most of the tea farms, and they 
have carefully studied the cultivation and han- 
dling of tea. 

There is a little tea raised in our own country 
in the state of South Carolina. It is very fine 
in quality and people are willing to pay a high 
price for it. Some of it has been sold for five 
dollars a pound. 

When tea was first brought into Europe, it was 
regarded as a great luxury, just as coffee was. 
People paid as much as fifty dollars a pound for 
it. It is said that some of the tea raised to-day 



THE TEA GARDENS OF CHINA 119 

for the royal family of China, is worth a hundred 
dollars a pound. 

Many people in this country do not enjoy a 
cup of tea unless they have milk and sugar in 
it. The Chinese do not use either in their tea. 
In Russia it is quite common to draw the tea 
through a lump of sugar held between the teeth. 

You know that tea parties are very common. 
The most celebrated tea party ever held was 
called the " Boston Tea Party." See what you 
can find out about it. 



A CUP OF COCOA 

On the eighteenth day of June, in the year 
1771, this notice appeared in the Essex Gazette 
of Massachusetts : — 

"AMOS TRASK, 

At his House a little below the Bell-Tavern in 

Danvers, 

Makes and sells Chocolate, 
which he will warrant to be good, and takes 
Cocoa to grind. Those who may please to 
favor him with their Custom may depend 
upon being well served, and at a very cheap 
Rate.'' 

This seems to have been the first notice of the 
manufacture and sale of cocoa and chocolate in 
our country. AYhat is peculiar about the notice? 

In those days the raw product was brought 
to Massachusetts by the Gloucester fishermen. 
They obtained it in the West Indies in ex- 

120 



A CUP OF COCOA 121 

change for fish, and other things which they 
took there. 

When the Spanish soldier, Cortez, conquered 
Mexico in 1519, he found that the people of 
that country were very fond of a drink which 
they called " chocolatl." It was served to their 
ruler, Montezuma, in a cup of gold. When the 
Spaniards went home, they of course introduced 
the drink into their own countr}^ For a long 
time it was very expensive and was not com- 
monly used outside of Spain, for the Spaniards 
kept the secret of its preparation. 

Cocoa and chocolate are products of the seeds 
of a tree called the cacao tree. It is a trop- 
ical tree and grows in both the Old and the 
New World. 

Although the cacao tree grows wild, it is also 
cultivated in orchards much like fruit orchards 
which you have seen. The trees are seldom 
more than twenty feet high, but they are rather 
inclined to spread out. They require some 
shade, and so other trees are often planted 
between the rows to shade them. The trees 
begin to bear when five or six years old, and 



122 



HOW WE ARE FED 



continue to yield for forty years. There are 
generally two chief harvests each year, but the 
fruit is ripening all of the time. 

The blossoms, which grow in clusters, are 
small and pink or yellow in color. They groAv 




Fig. 39. — Cocoa Pods and Leaves. 

(Permission of Waltek Baker & Co., Ltd.) 

directly from the branches or the trunk of the 
tree. 

In about four months after the tree has 
blossomed, you will find dark yellow or brown 
pods hanging from it. These look a little like 



A CUP OF COCOA 123 

ripe cucumbers, but they are more pointed at 
one end and are grooved or fluted. These pods 
are from six inches to a foot or more in length, 
with a rather thick, tough rind. 
t How do you think the pods are gathered ? 




Fig. 40, — Native Cocoa Tickers. Ceylon. 
(Permission of Walter Baker «fe Co., Ltd.) 

They are cut off by men carrying long poles, 
sometimes of bamboo, to the ends of which 
knives are fastened. Only the ripe pods are 
cut off and collected in a heap under the tree. 
They are left in these heaps for about twenty- 



124 HOW WE ARE FED 

four hours, when they are cut open and the 
seeds are gathered in baskets. 

The seeds are called '' beans." There are five 
rows of them, about the size of almonds, within 
the pink pulp of the fruit. When fresh they 
are white, but when dried they are brown. If 
you taste one, you will find it bitter. 

You have often seen on packages of chocolate, 
as well as on the cans of breakfast cocoa, the 
picture of a young woman carrying some choco- 
late upon a tray. It is the picture of a beauti- 
ful gh'l who once served chocolate in the old 
city of Vienna. Her name was Anette Bal- 
dauff, and she married a rich count and '' lived 
happily ever after." It is said that a painting 
of her hangs upon the walls of the great art 
gallery in Dresden. Point out the cities I have 
mentioned. 

The seeds are carried from the orchard to the 
sheds, where they are prepared for market. Here 
they go through a process of fermentation or 
" sweating." For this purpose they are placed 
in a covered box, or they may even be covered 
with earth. This is called "claying." Now 



A CLP OF COCOA 



125 



the seeds must be dried. They are spread out 
on platforms, raised a httle above the ground, 
so that the air can circulate underneath. You 
notice that the roofs do not cover them just 
now, for theh^ only purpose is to keep oft: the 




Fig. 41. — Drying Cocoa Seed. Ceylon. 
(Permission of Walter Baker & Co. Ltd.) 

dew and the rain. They are fastened to frames 
which have wheels under them. During the 
day they are not used, but at night they are 
rolled over the cocoa. 

The cocoa is stirred by v^orkmen using long 



126 HOW WE ARE FED 

shovels or rakes, so that it may dry quickly and 
evenly. Once a day the beans are shoveled into 
heaps and the workmen tread upon them with 
their bare feet, as you see. This is called 
"dancing the cocoa." 

After the seeds have dried for about two 
weeks they are nearly the color of red bricks. 
They are put up for shipment in canvas sacks 
holding one hundred and fifty pounds each. 
The name of the plantation is usually stamped 
upon the outside. Guayaquil exports more 
cocoa than any other city. Find it. A great 
deal comes from the island of Trinidad, and from 
the northern part of South America. 

AYhen the " beans " have reached their desti- 
nation, they must be cleaned, to rid them of dust 
and dirt collected on the w^ay. They are then 
placed in a great revolving cylinder and roasted. 
You remember that when coft'ee is roasted it 
brings out a pleasant odor called its aroma. 
The same is true of cocoa. The roasting also 
helps to loosen a shell which surrounds the 
seed. The shell is next removed and the 
" beans " are then crushed. 



A CUP OF COCOA 



P The Mexicans used to crush the seeds on a 
large stone, hollowed out on top. This they 
called a "matate." 

The crushing is now done by machinery. 




Fig. 42. — Grinding Cocoa. 
(Permission of Waltek Baker & Co., Ltd.) 

The broken bits of the cocoa are called '' cocoa 
nibs." When the cocoa is ground to a pow^ler, 
it is put iuto strong bags and pressed. This 
pressure removes a part of an oily substance 
known as " cocoa butter." Remember, then, that 



128 



HOW WE ARE FED 



cocoa is the meal or flour made from the crushed 
seeds from which some of the oil has been re- 
moved. Chocolate differs from cocoa in that 
none of this oil is removed in making it. 




Fig. 43. — Moulding Cocoa. 

(Permission of Walter Baker & Co., Ltd.) 

You have often seen the words " sweet choco- 
late " on the labels. This is made by adding a 
quantity of pulverized sugar to the " plain " or 
" bitter " chocolate. Sometimes vanilla beans 
are added. 



A CUP OF COCOA 



129 



The pasty mass known as chocolate must be 
molded. When the proper amount has been 
pLaced in each of several metal molds which 
rest on a table, they are made to rock or shake, 
and this causes the chocolate to assume the 




Fig. 44. — Cooling Cocoa. 
(Permission ofWALTER Baker & Co., Ltd.) 

right shape. The molds are then taken to the 
cooling room, where they are placed on frames, 
one above another, in long rows. Girls and 
women wrap the cakes of chocolate in the wrap- 
pers specially prepared for them, after which 
they are packed in boxes ready for shipment. 



130 HOW WE ARE FED 

At Dorchester, Massachusetts, on the Nepon- 
set River, is situated the largest establishment 
for the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate in 
America. It is interesting to know that on the 
very spot where these great mills now stand, 
was built, in 1765, the first one of the kind in 
this country. 



A CRANBERRY BOG 

Wareham, Massachusetts, Dec. 10, 1901. 

Dear Fraxk: How siiriDrised you will be to 
learii that I am now a country boy. We left 
Boston early last spring, and came out here to 
go into the business of cranberry raising. It 
seemed very strange at first to travel along 
country roads, or through woods and fields, 
instead of upon the cement walks of our city 
streets, but we all think the country delightful. 

A cranberry farm is a marsh or a jjog, so 

you will see that the vines need a great deal 

of water. There are l^oth wild and cultivated 

bogs. Those that are cultivated are provided 

with a system of ditches, so that they can be 

flooded from time to time. It is a good deal 

like irrigation in Southern California, I suppose. 

We flood the bogs to j)revent the berries from 

freezing, as well as to furnish the vines with 

water. I will tell you more about that by 

and by. 

131 



1B2 HOW WE ARE FED 

Father wanted a larger bog than the one he 
first bought, so, soon after we came, he got 
another small piece of marsh land which joins 
it on the west, and started vines on it. 

YoQ know that willows, rosebushes, grape- 
vines, and many other plants will grow from 
cuttings. It is the same with cranberry vines. 
The lower end of each cutting is pressed into 
the soil, and it soon begins to grow. They are 
set in rows about fourteen inches apart. One 
of our neighbors, who was starting a bog at 
the same time, cut the vines into pieces an 
inch or two long, and scattered them over the 
ground. He then harrowed them in. The 
vines multiply just as strawberry plants do, by 
putting out runners. 

They tell us that our new bog will produce 
a crop in three years. Do you have to wait 
that long for a crop of oranges ? 

By the middle of June our bog was in full 
blossom. The flowers are quite small and their 
color is a little like that of the flesh. I read 
an interesting thing about them the other day. 
It seems that the berries used to be called 



A CRANBERRY BOG 



133 



" craneberries," because people thought that the 
blossoms, just before they opened fully, "re- 
sembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane." 
By dropping the e, we got the present name. 




Fio. 45. — A Cranberry Bog. Showing Uie Young Vines. 

During our harvest time, which lasted from 
the middle of September to the last of October, 
we were very busy. We did not commence to 



134 



HOW WE ARE FED 



go to school until the berries were picked. You 
see, frost may occur and spoil the crop, so that 
everybody works as fast as possible until the 
harvest is over. Father had about twenty 




Fig. 46. — Cranberry Pickers at Work. Notice how the Bog is 
divided into Rows by Means of Cords. 

pickers some of the time, besides our own 
family. 

When we were ready to begin picking, 
father took some twine and stretched it back 
and forth across the bog, fastening it to small 
stakes. This divided the held into rows. Each 



A CRANBERRY BOG 135 

picker was given a row, and he was not allowed 
to change until it was finished. 

At first it seemed great fun to get down on 
the groimd and strip oft' the bright berries, but 
when one does this day after day it gets pretty 
tiresome. It must be easy to pick oranges, 
because you can stand up while you work. 

Father paid the pickers twelve cents a pail. 
It takes about three pailfuls to make a bushel. 
I averaged about one dollar and a half each 
day. I bought a suit of clothes and all of my 
books for the year, and have considerable 
money left. Some of the pickers who were 
quite small did not earn very nuich. Do you 
recognize Jennie ? She worked a part of 
every day. 

Twice diu^ing the picking season there w^as a 
sharp frost, but we saved the crop. 

The government sends out a Weather Map 
every day. Our teacher gets one, and there is 
one tacked up in the post office every morning. 
These maps tell what kind of weather to expect, 
and father watches them closely. When he 
saw that frost was likely to occur, he and the 



136 HOW WE AKE FED 

men opened the gates which hold back the 
water^ in order to flood the part of the bog 
where we had not picked. The vines were 
buried nearly two feet beneath the surface of 
the water. Father says the water cools so 




Fig. i7. — A Young Worker. Notice how the Berries are picked. 

slowly that its temperature is much above that 
of the surface of the ground or the air near it, 
so the berries do not get frost-bitten. Soon 
after sunrise the water was drawn off, and the 
next day the bog was dry enough for the pick- 
ers to work. 



A CRANBERRY BOG 



137 



I wonder if the Weather Bureau is of any 
use to farmers in California. I know that the 
sailors watch for the flags which tell when 
storms are coming, that they may not go to 
sea if a violent 



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storm is ex- 
pected. Father 
says very many 
lives and much 
property are 
saved every year 
in this way. 

I have not told 
you what we do 
with the cran- 
berries after they 
are picked. Of 
course we cannot 
help gathering 
some leaves and twigs with the berries, and these 
must be taken out. For this purpose the berries 
are put into a winnowing machine. I will send 
you a picture of one. As the man turns the 
crank, wooden fans within turn rapidly, blowing 



Fig. 48. — Winnowing and Barreling 
Cranberries. 



138 HOW WE ARE FED 

out the leaves, twigs, and dirt. The berries drop 
through a screen and run out of a spout into 
a barrel, as you see. We then put them into 
crates or barrels for sale. Father tells me that 
cranberries are shipped from our country to 
Europe, because those raised here are much 
better than the European berries. 

There are great quantities of cranberries 
raised in this part of Massachusetts. I have 
been readiug lately that they are produced in 
New Jersey, on Long Island, in Michigan, Wis- 
consin, Minnesota, Canada, and some other sec- 
tions. From Avhat I have read, I guess they 
are not raised in Southern California. Wouldn't 
it seem strange if you w^ere to eat berries raised 
on our bog, three thousand miles away ? 

Now I want you to tell me about the orange 
groves of Southern California, for none of us 
have ever seen an orange growing. 

I wish you all a very "Merry Christmas" 
and a " Happy New Year." 

Your loving friend, 

Will. 



I 



THE COCOANUT ISLANDS OF THE 
PACIFIC 

Imagine yourself on a great ocean steamship, 
gliding over the blue water of the Pacific Ocean 
toward the Samoan Islands. Among the first 
things that you will see as you near the shores 
of these islands will he tall, slender, graceful 
trees, rising witliout a branch to a height of 
thirty to eighty feet. At the top is a sort 
of crown, composed of long, drooping leaves. 
These beautiful trees lean out over the water 
and toss their leaves in the strong and steady 
breeze from the ocean. They seem to nod a 
friendly greeting to you as you approach, and 
to wave a loving farewell to you as you sail 
away. These trees are the cocoanut palms. 
They grow on all of the trojDical islands of 
the Pacific Ocean, in the West Indies, and 
along the shores of most warm countries, but 
never far from the sea. 

139 



140 HOW WE ARE FED 

When the cocoanut falls mto the water, it 
is rocked and tossed by the waves and drifted 
about by the currents, but it is safe within 
its shell, for the salt water cannot penetrate 
this. When it finally comes to rest upon some 
strange shore, it is ready to give to the world 
another cocoanut palm, if the climate is like 
that from which it sailed. In this way nature 
has helped the trees to become widely distributed. 

There ^re cocoanut plantations as well as 
wild groves of the trees. When a plantation is 
to be established, the planter selects the ripest 
nuts and dries them for several weeks. They 
are then planted, and by and by a little 
palm springs from the small end of the nut 
and the roots from the large end. When the 
young trees are from six months to two years 
old, they are transplanted in rows thirty or 
forty feet apart. They begin to bear nuts in 
about five years, but they do not yield a full 
crop for fifteen or twenty years. Do you think 
that a poor man could afford to go into the 
business of cocoanut raising ? 

As you see in the picture, cocoanuts grow 







Fig. 4'j. — A Cocoanut Grove. 



THE COCOANUT ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC 143 

in clusters. You notice also that they grow 
close to the stem instead of at the ends of the 
branches. They do not all ripen at once, but 
nuts may be picked at almost any time. A 
tree will produce from fifty to one hundred 
nuts each year. If you were to go into an 
apple, a peach, or a cherry orchard, you could 
easily pick the ripe fruit. Gathering cocoanuts 
is quite a different matter, however. Let us 
observe this shiny-skinned Samoan boy and see 
how he picks them. He fastens a short piece 
of rope in the form of a looj) to each foot. 
Letting one of the loops catch on a rough 
place on the bark of the tree he places the 
hollow of his foot against it, clasps the trunk 
with his hands, and raises himself a little. 
Then the other loop is fastened a little higher 
up, and he raises himself again. In this way 
he finally reaches the nuts. With a knife he 
cuts off the ripe ones, which fall to the ground 
and are then piled up. They are then placed 
in baskets which are hung from a pole and 
carried on the shoulders of two men or are 
loaded on to donkevs and taken to the shed. 



144 HOW WE ARE FED 

The ripe cocoanut is a valuable article of 
food just as it is picked from the tree. It 
contains also a milk which is a nourishing 
drink. Most of the cocoanut sent to other 
countries, however, is in a form known as copxi. 

At the shed the hard shell, which covers the 
meat, is split open by means of an ax. The 
meat is removed with a knife and is then 
spread out on mats to dry. This dried cocoa- 
nut is copra. 

The inhabitants of these cocoanut islands live 
in a much more simple style than we do, and the 
cocoanut tree supplies many of the things that 
they use daily. 

Let us examine the home of a native Samoan. 
The frame and posts of the house are made of 
the slender trunks of the cocoanut palm, while 
the roof is covered with its leaves instead of with 
shingles. The cups, bowls, dippers, and many 
other household utensils are made of the shells. 
If a whole shell is wanted, the " eyes " are 
pushed in, the milk is used, and ants are allowed 
to eat the meat. These make excellent water 
bottles. Baskets, curtains, and twine, are made 






THE COCOANUT ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC 145 

from the fiber of the leaves, and the bark is used 
for fuel. 

From the cojDra an oil is 23ressed which is used 
in tlie manufacture of soap. It makes a perfectly 
white soap that will float on the water. It is 
also used to furnish liglit, and the people rub it 
on their bodies to prevent sunburn. The sap 
of the tree is made into sugar, vinegar, and 
a liquor. 

While in our country the cocoanut is impor- 
tant chiefly to bakers and confectioners, in these 
far-away islands it is the most useful of plants, 
and one of the chief articles of food. Would 
you not like to visit the cocoanut islands and 
learn more of their interesting people ? 



A BUNCH OF BANANAS 

Every day, as you walk along the streets you 
see great bunches of bananas hanging in front of 
fruit and grocery stores. You find them at the 
corner fruit stand, and peddlers carry them from 
house to house. 

Although bananas are so common now and so 
cheap that all can afford to eat them, this was not 
so when your grandparents were children. In 
those days the fruit was regarded as quite a 
luxury, for there were few people engaged in 
carrying it from its tropical home to the cities of 
our country. Now many small but swift shijDS, 
called " fruiters," carry on this business. They 
get their cargoes of fruit in the West Indies or 
Central America, and within a week after sail- 
ing they are unloading at New Orleans, Balti- 
more, New York, or Boston. If the number of 
bananas which reach our country each year were 
equally distributed, each person would receive 
twenty-five. 

146 



A BUNCH OF BANANAS 



147 



Let lis get aboard that wonderful train upon 
whicli all may travel free of cost, which runs 




Fig. 50. — A Banana Tree. 



equally well upon land and water. We step off 
right in the center of a banana plantation on the 
island of Jamaica. 



148 HOW WE ARE FED 

Yes, these are banana trees all about you. 
See how long and broad the leaves are and 
how gracefully they droop ! Some of them are 
ten or fifteen feet long ; almost as long as the 
trees are tall. The trees, you see, are simply 
stalks from which the leaves unroll. Here you 
can see some just starting out. They are rolls 
of bright green, pointing upward, each startmg 
from the center of the stalk. No, the leaves 
were not torn in that way by the pickers. The 
wind sometimes whips them into ribbons, for 
they are very tender. 

These stalks growing from the base of the 
main stem are called "suckers" here; in Costa 
Rica they are called "bits." You remember 
that there are no seeds in bananas. It is 
these " suckers " that are planted when a 
farmer wants to start a plantation. They are 
set out when two or three feet high and within 
a year they bear fruit. What did I tell you 
about the length of time required for the 
cocoanut to bear ? 

It is but four years since the trees in this 
plantation were single " suckers," standing 



A BUNCH OF BANANAS 



149 



about fifteen feet apart. Now there are sev- 
eral stalks grouped about each parent plant, 
and the beautiful leaves, touching overhead, 
form shaded aisles of green. 

Of course a threat number of '• suckers " are 













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Fig. 51. — A Banana I'lautation. 

not allowed to grow together. Keeping these 
cut down is called "cleaning the plantation." 
Now let us examine tlie fruit on this tree 
beside us. You see that the great cluster or 
bunch is made up of smaller bunches. These 
are called " hands," and each banana is spoken 



150 HOW WE ARE FED 

of as a " finger." Let us count the " hands " in 
this bunch. This is an unusually large one, 
for it contains thirteen. Nine ^'hands'' make 
a full hunch. As you see, there are from ten 
to twenty "fingers" in a "hand." Buyers will 
seldom take bunches of less than six " hands." 

Here come the fruit cutters to help get a 
cargo for the "fruiter" we saw at anchor. 

Yes, the bananas are green, I know, and 
they are always green when gathered. They 
will ripen in the storehouses when they reach 
the United States. 

No, it is not a waste to cut down tlie stalks, 
for they die after bearing their fruit, and the 
smaller stalks about them will soon yield. 
Some of these stalks, you see, have but one 
bunch and some have two or three. How odd 
the bunches look with the "' fingers " all point- 
ing upward ! 

The banana leaves which the men are wrap- 
ping about the bunches are to protect the 
fruit. It bruises very easily and great quanti- 
ties are lost on this account. They are not 
always wrapped, however. 



A BUNCH OF BANANAS 



151 



When the fruit reaches the vessel, it is 
carefully ins^^ected ; and if not in just the right 
condition, it is refused. The bunches which 
are accepted, are taken into the hold of the 




Fig. 



Loading a Small Boat with Bauana.s lo be taken to the 
" Fruiter" in the Harbor. 



ship and packed closely together. The planter 
receives for these from ten to thirty-five cents 
a launch. Just think of buying eight or nine 
dozen of bananas for ten cents ! 

The men Avill not stop Avork until the ship 



152 HOW WE ARE FED 

is loaded. It may take twenty-four hours, 
and it may take twice that long, for a ''fruiter" 
will carry from fifteen to twenty thousand 
bunches of fruit. 

In some parts of Central America, where 
there are no harbors, the planters float the 
fruit down the streams in canoes. The vessels 
anchor at some distance from the shore, and 
the bananas are taken out in boats called 
dories. They are hoisted up to tlie deck of 
the ship by means of pulleys, and then packed 
in the hold. The thousands of bunches which 
are bruised in handling are thrown into the sea. 

While the northern ports get most of their 
supply of bananas from the West Indies, the 
Pacific coast states are supplied from Central 
Auierica. The ''fruiters" unload at New 
Orleans into trains, which carry the fruit to 
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other places. 
Banana trains also run from New Orleans to 
St. Louis, Chicago, and other parts of the 
country. 

The fruit ships have great pipes or venti- 
lators, which carry the cool, fresh air from the 



A BUNCH OF BANANAS 



153 



sea down into the hold. Sometimes when they 
reach port it is so cold that the bananas can- 
not be taken out for a few days. Wagons are 
loaded with the fruit at the wharves, and it 
is taken to warehouses where it gradually turns 




Fig. 53. — A " Fruiter " taking a Cargo of Bananas. 

yellow. I am sure you have seen loads of the 
green fruit on the streets. 

When the wholesale merchant sells the fruit, 
he often incloses each bunch in the rough 
material of which gunny sacks are made, and 
then puts a light, circular frame, made of strips 
of wood, over it. This, you see, protects the 



154 HOW WE ARE FED 

bananas. The grocer or fruit man takes hold 
of the frame without danger of mashing the 
fruit, lifts the bunch, and hangs it upon a hook. 
The frame and sacking are then removed. 

Bananas grow in the tropical parts of Asia 
and Africa and on many of the islands of the 
Pacific Ocean. They are also raised in Florida, 
and they ripen in sheltered places in Southern 
California. 

You have seen both yellow and red bananas. 
The red ones usually bring the higher price, 
but they do not keep well and are not so 
extensively raised as the yellow ones. 

The banana is an important article of food. 
It is much more nourishing than potatoes or 
even good, white bread. A flour or meal can 
be made from the fruit by drying it and then 
grinding. 



HOW DATES GROW 

Three thousand years before the shepherds 
followed the star to the manger at Bethlehem, 
the beautiful date palm was cultivated beside 
the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile rivers. 
The date was the bread of the people who 
lived in these fertile valleys, and it is an im- 
portant article of food in northern Africa, 
Arabia, and Persia to-day. 

Look at a map of northern Africa, and you 
will see that tlie great Sahara covers a large 
part of it. Here and there across the drifting 
sands wind caravan routes, traveled by camels 
ridden by strangely dressed men. These routes 
lead to beautifid garden spots called oases. 
Here are wells and springs, with little streams 
flowing in the shade of fig, date palm, and 
other trees. The people who dwell within 
these groves beside the cooling waters look 
out upon the desert as the inhabitants of an 

155 



156 HOW WE ARE FED 

island might look upon the boundless sea. 
Find soDie of these oases and learn why they 
are fertile. The people who live in these 
oases depend upon dates for their living. The 
dreary journey from the coast to the interior 
is made to procure quantities of this fruit, 
which are wanted by the outside world. 

If you were to make a journey in a desert 
country, you woidd find that you could not 
carry such articles of food as you would have 
if you remained at home. The sunshine beats 
down fiercely, the springs and wells are far 
apart, and the patient animals must not be 
overloaded. The chief article of food carried 
is the date. A mass is packed together until 
it is so hard that pieces are chopped off with 
a hatchet when they are wanted. 

Like the cocoanut palm, the date palm rises 
to a great height, sometimes fifty or sixty feet, 
without branches. It ends in a crown of beau- 
tiful feathery leaves which droop downward. 
These leaves may be ten or fifteen feet long. 
Many of them stand edgewise. Unlike most 
trees, the trunk does not steadily increase in 




Fig. 5-i.— Date \\\hu> loadrd witli \i\[n: Fiuii. lii.>kra, Algeria. 
(Year Buok U. S. Dei.artmont of Agrkultme, 1900.) 



now DATES GROW 159 

.size, and you can tell nothing as to the age of 
the tree by its diameter. 

In its wild state many shoots spring from 
the base of the tree. These may grow as high 
as the parent stalk, so that in time a jungle or 
thicket is formed. 

The flowers, which are clear white, grow in 
clusters. There are from six to twenty of these 
clusters on a tree, each of which produces a 
Inmcli of dates. The female tree bears the 
fruit. The blossoms are ]3ollinated both by the 
wind and by man. 

There are from ten to fifteen pounds of dates 
in a bunch. A tree will average from one hun- 
dred to two hundred pounds each year, although 
trees have been known to yield six hundred 
pounds. The trees yield when from four to 
eight years old, and continue to bear for a 
century. 

The dates, green at first, later in the year a 
yellowish brown, are, when ripe, amber or black 
in color. 

The trees recjuire a very dry, hot climate, but 
moist soil. Long, long ago, this saying was 



160 HOW AVE ARE FED 

common among the Arabs, '' The date palm, 
the queen of trees, must have her feet in run- 
ning water and her head in the burning sky." 

Although there are lovely date palm trees on 
the grounds of many California homes, few of 
them bear fruit. The temperature must aver- 
age from eighty to ninety degrees for a consid- 
erable time in the summer, in order to mature 
it. What is the average summer temperature 
in your locality ? 

If an ordinary tree is frost-bitten, it recovers 
and soon puts out a new growth ; but if the 
crown of the date palm be frozen, the tree dies. 

When the Moors went to Spain, in the 
eleventh century, they introduced this valuable 
tree which the mission fathers several hundred 
years later brought to Mexico and to Southern 
California. 

How would you like to try to climb a date 
palm tree ? Although they look so smooth 
and are without branches, the natives of the 
desert climb them without any help whatever. 
The trunk is always somewhat rough, and this 
makes it possible to ascend them. 




Fig. 55. — Date Palm Trees. 



HOW DATES GROW 163 

Not all of the dates in a bunch ripen at once, 
so they are usually picked by hand and only 
the ripe ones selected. Sometimes, however, the 
bunches are cut off. Some dates contain so 
much sap that the bunches must be hung up 
to allow it to drain off before they can be 
shipped. This sap is called date honey, and is 
saved. They are sent to the coast towns in 
bags or boxes called frails. AVhere dates 
are to be sold in small quantities, they are 
repacked in the small boxes such as you have 
seen. 

You know that dates are very sweet, and it 
is no wonder that they are, for they contain 
from fifty-five to sixty per cent of sugar. 

The trees are often tapped, and the sap which 
flows out is made into sugar. Vinegar and a 
liquor called arrack are also made from it. 
The leaves of the tree are made into bags and 
mats ; from the stones a drink is made which 
takes the place of coffee. From the leafstalks 
baskets are made, while the trunk furnishes 
material for houses and for fences. 

If the dates could speak, they could tell us 



164 HOW WE ARE FED 

many wonderful stories of the far East, of the 
river boats on the Nile, of the drifting sands 
which come so close to the river's banks, of 
the caravans creeping over the desert toward 
the green oases and then fading out of sight, 
bearing loads of this food to the countries 
where it is not produced. . 



THE ORANGE GROVES OF SOUTHERN 
CALIFORNIA 

Pasadena, California, Jan. 4, 1902. 

Dear Friend Will : I was very glad to 
receive your letter, and miicli surprised to know 
that you are living on a farm. I am glad that 
you described the raising of cranberries, for I 
did not know much about it before. When I 
told my teacher about getting the letter, she 
asked me to read it in the geography class 
and to show the pictures. I asked our grocery- 
man where he gets his cranberries, and found 
that some of them came from Wareham. 

You are having cold weather now, I know. 
Is the skating good? I have not seen ice as 
thick as window glass since we came to Cali- 
fornia, except that delivered by the iceman. 
Just now there is a beautiful covering of snow 
on the mountains a few miles north and east 
of town. Just think of picking roses and call as 

165 



166 HOW WE ARE FED 

with snow in plain sight ! The snow never 
remains more than a day or two on these 
mountains. 

Soon after we came to Pasadena, father 
bought an orange grove of twentj-five acres. 
We are picking the fruit now. People began 
to pick oranges several wrecks ago, and the 
work w^ll continue all winter. 

Orange trees are planted about twenty feet 
apart, but the groves do not look as apple 
orchards do in the East, for no grass is allowed 
to grow in them. 

The best orange section is east of here, near 
Redlands and Riverside, but some good fruit is 
raised near Pasadena also. 

Father keeps our trees pruned down rather 
low, so that it is easier to pick the oranges 
than it would be if they were allowed to grow 
very tall. 

Orange raising is like cranberry growing in 
one way — the land must be irrigated in each 
case. Here the water is piped from the moun- 
tain streams and from tunnels. We form 
basins about ten feet square around each tree 



THE ORANGE GROVES OF CALIFORNIA 167 

and fill them with water. Most of our irrigat- 
mg is done during the summer, as the winter 
is our rainy season. You would not call it a 
very rainy time. Our average is about twenty 
inches for the whole year. 

The trees in our grove have been set out 
about six years, and they are bearing nicely 
now. Orange trees begin to bear wdien they 
are four years old; so, you see, we have to wait 
a little longer for a crop than you do for a crop 
of cranberries. It costs a good deal to start an 
orange grove. Trees cost from one dollar to 
one and one-half dollars each at the nurseries. 
A few years ago they sold for twenty cents each. 

I wish that you could see the trees when 
they are hi full blossom, and also when they 
are loaded with the golden fruit. I am going 
to put some orange blossoms into the envelope, 
but I am afraid they will not reach you in very 
good condition. They are very fragrant, and 
you can smell their perfume some distance from 
a tree in blossom. 

To-day we picked about tw^o hundred and fifty 
boxes of oranges. We always speak of jncMng 



168 



HOW WE ARE FED 



the in, although they are not picked, but cut. 
You see, if they were picked off, the part where 
the stein pulled off would soon begin to decay. 
We take a wagon load of fruit boxes, and, 
while father drives slowly between the rows 
of trees, I throw them off. 




Fig. 5G. — Picking Oranges in California. 



Each picker carries a sack slung over one 
shoulder, and as fast as he cuts off an orange, 
he drops it into the sack. The sacks are 
emptied into the boxes, and these are loaded 
on to the wagon. Father pays five cents a 
box for picking, and a good picker will gather 
about forty boxes in a day. 



THE ORANGE GROVES OF CALIFORNIA 169 

We sell most of our oranges to fruit com- 
panies. These companies pack and ship the 
fruit. At the packing houses the oranges are 
placed in tubs of water and scrubbed with 
small brushes. Many women, girls, and boys 




Fig. 57. — Grading and Packing C)range8. 

work at this. The washing is to take off dirt, 
and also scale. 

After the oranges are washed, they are placed 
in a sort of trough which is higliest at the end 
near the tub. They roll down this trough to 
the (jrader. This is a machine so arranged 
that the oranges pass through different open- 
ings according to their size, and come out sorted. 



ITO HOW WE ARE FED 

In the warehouse close by they are wrapped 
and packed. Chinamen often do this work. 
Each orange is wrapped in a separate piece of 
paper, which has the brand of the company 
stamped upon it. It is then packed firmly in 
a box. A certain number of oranges of each 
grade fill a box, ninety-six of the largest grade, 
and about two hundred of the smallest. Those 
which are too small, as well as the imperfect 
oranges, are rejected. These are called culls. 
Sometimes these are sold for a low price, and 
sometimes they are thrown away by wagon 
loads. 

After the boxes are filled, they are placed 
in special fruit cars and hurried to St. Louis, 
Chicago, New York, Boston, and other cities. 

Yes, the Weather Bureau is of great help to 
fruit growers. Of course we have very little 
winter here, but oranges will not endure nuich 
cold. The mercury falls below the freezing 
point but a few times each season. On New 
Year's Day the temperature here was fifty-eight 
degrees. I looked up the Boston temperature 
for the same day and found that it was only 



THE ORANGE GROVES OF CALIFORNIA 171 

four degrees above zero. When the Bureau 
predicts a sharp freeze, the farmers build small 
fires in their orchards, or turn on a good deal 
of water. The fires are built in small wire 
baskets. They make a smudge instead of a 
flame. The people in the raisin districts watch 
the weather reports pretty closely, for rain 
injures the drying grapes. 

Growers have to spray or fumigate the trees 
to destroy the scale that I spoke of which is a 
great enemy of the orange, to kill the insects, 
and to wash oft' dirt. This is sometimes done 
by putting a great piece of canvas over the tree, 
forming a sort of tent which prevents the fumes 
from escaping. It was found that the ladybugs 
would eat the scale and so they were brought 
into California from the East. They do a great 
deal of good, but still we have to spray the 
trees. 

Orange trees are raised from the seed, and 
the trees produced in this way are called seed- 
lings. By budding, a fruit much better than the 
oranges grown on the seedling tree has been 
produced. There were five acres of seedlings 



172 HOW WE ARE FED 

in our grove, and father budded the trees. He 
cut off the limbs rather close to the trunk of 
the tree. Then he slipped buds from navel 
trees into cuts made through the bark in the 
end of each limb left on the tree. He then 
wound cord tightly about the limb and put on 
some wax. After a time a new growth started 
out where these buds were placed. These new 
branches will bear much improved fruit. 

AYe have a very fine variety of oranges called 
Washington Navels. Trees of this variety were 
obtained by our government from Brazil. Two 
of these were brought to Riverside, a town 
about seventy-five miles east of Pasadena, and 
planted on a ranch belonging to a Mr. Tibbitts. 
They did well, and all of the trees of this va- 
riety in Southern California were obtained from 
these two through budding. These trees are 
still living, and I will send you a picture of one 
of them. It stands at the head of a fine drive 
called Magnolia Avenue. 

California and Florida are the two important 
orange-growing states of our country. Father 
says the industry is much older in Florida than 



{ 



THE ORANGE GROVES OF CALIFORNIA 173 

in our state. Florida growers can ship their 
fruit to market much cheaper than we can. It 
costs us ninety cents for each box. 

Mexico, the West Indies, Italy, southern 
France, and Spain are also orange producers. 
These countries have the advantage of cheap 
labor, father says. 

I wish that you could visit us. We would 
have fine times, I am sure. 

The next time I write I will tell you about 
some of the other fruits raised in California. 
Your sincere friend, 

Frank. 



A VISIT TO A VINEYARD 

Pasadena, California, Oct. 1, 1902. 

Dear friend Will : Last week father 
went to Fresno, which is about three hmidred 
miles northwest of here, in the San Joaquin 
valley. He took me with him, and we visited 
some of the great vineyards and raisin-packing 
establishments near and in that city. 

Raisins are simply dried grapes. Although 
there are many countries where grapes grow, 
there are few where raisins are made. Dew, 
fog, and rain injure the fruit, so that the San 
Joaquin valley, with its dry, hot atmosphere, is 
well adapted to this industry. 

There are a great many different kinds of 
grapes but only the green variety is used in 
making raisins. The raisin grapes are called 
muscats. If the grapes are left on the vines 
long enough, they become raisins. I have 
picked some pretty good raisins from the vines. 

174 



A VISIT TO A A^NEYARD 175 

Of course by being spread out, they dry quicker 
and more evenly. 

The sugar that you find on and in the raisins 
is not put there by the people who dry the 
grapes. It comes from the juice of the grape. 

Grapevines grow from both roots and cut- 
tings. Of course cuttings are the cheaper. 
Often they may be had for the asking. Many 
think that it is better to set out rooted vines 
than cuttings. 

They are planted in rows from six feet apart 
to twelve or fifteen feet. During the first year 
the young vines will grow several feet. In 
the fall, when the flow of the sap has been 
checked by frost, the vines are pruned. A vine- 
yard in California looks quite different from one 
in the East. During the winter it is simply so 
many rows of stumps several inches in thickness 
and one or two feet high. During the summer 
the branches grow from these stumps and pro- 
duce their beautiful clusters of grapes, only to 
be cut off in the fall or winter. 

The trimmings are generally burned in the 
vineyard at the same time that they are cut off. 



176 HOW WE ARE FED 

A sort of furnace made of sheet iron is fastened 
between two wheels and drawn by horses up 
and down between the rows. A man pitches 
the cuttings into it, and they burn as it moves 
along. 

In the early summer men go through the 
vineyards sprinkling a coating of sulphur on 
the vines. This it to prevent mildew, which 
damages the fruit very much. 

During the last half of August and Sep- 
tember the grapes are picked. Sometimes the 
harvest continues into October. Most of the 
grapes had been gathered when we visited 
the vineyards. 

When the juice of the grapes is one fourth 
sugar, they are ready to pick. The grower 
generally tells the condition by the taste and 
color of the fruit, although there are instru- 
ments for determining the amount of sugar. 

Like oranges, grapes are cut from the vines 
and not picked. We saw great companies of 
Chinamen going through the vineyards cutting 
off the beautiful clusters. These they placed on 
shallow, wooden trays to dry. In a week or 



A VISIT TO A VINEYARD 



179 



two, when the upper side of the clusters is 
pretty well dried, the grapes are turned. We 
saw the workmen place an empty tray, upside 
down, over the filled one. Then, holding the 
two together, they turned them over, and the 





». ■■.■-. , ■ ■■'*-=>■.: ;-".■, • ■- ■ 


B;Sli 


^a 



Fi< 



— Drying Raisin Grapes. 

grapes dropped into the tray that had been 
jDlaced on top. 

During this drying time the people watch 
the reports of the Weather Bureau. In some 
places flags are displayed when rain is expected. 



180 



HOW WE ARE FED 



As a rule the grape season is over before the 
rains begin. 

When the grapes are taken from the trays, 
they are placed in boxes holding about one 
hundred pounds each. These are called sioeat 




Fig. go. — A Vineyard after being Pruned. 



boxes. Here the driest grapes absorb soine 
of the moisture from the others, and the mass 
becomes more uniform. 

After the drying process has been finished, 
the stems are rather brittle. To make them 



A VISIT TO A VINEYARD 181 

softer and easier to handle, the grapes are next 
placed in a cool room and left there for a time. 

After visiting some of the vineyards, we 
drove to one of the great packing establish- 
ments in Fresno. These packing houses are 
nearly always in the cities and towns, be- 
cause there help can be easily obtained. The 
packing house that we visited employs four 
hundred people, mostly girls and women. 

The raisins are first placed on wooden or 
metal frames the size of a raisin box. These 
are called forvis, and the packers are paid ac- 
cording to the number of forms filled. When 
these are filled, the raisins are carefully trans- 
ferred to the boxes. 

A box of raisins weighs twenty pounds, but 
there are half boxes and quarter boxes put up 
also. A paper is placed on the bottom of each 
box, and over the raisins another is j)laced. On 
top of this there is a fancy paper on which the 
name of the packer is stamped. 

In most establishments there are three grades 
of raisins, Imperial Clusters, London Layers, 
and the loose and imperfect stems. 



182 HOW WE ARE FED 

Sometimes a second crop of grapes is gathered 
a little later in the fall. Of course these do not 
dry so well because the days are shorter, it is 
cooler, and rains sometimes occur. On this 
account they are dipped in lye and then rinsed 
in water. The lye cracks the skin, and so the 
juice evaporates more quickly. These are called 
Valencia raisins. There is not a very good 
market for these, so that people do not dip 
them so commonly now as they used to. 

We saw the machine where the raisins are 
stemmed. They pass from a hopper into a 
space between two woven-wire cylinders. The 
inner one revolves within the other. In this 
way the raisins are broken from the stems. 
They are then run through a fanning mill 
which cleans them, and they are finally graded 
by passing through screens having openings of 
different sizes. 

Most of the seedless raisins are made from 
seedless grapes, but there are machines for 
removing the seeds from the grapes which 
contain them. 

The superintendent of the packing house said 



A VISIT TO A VINEYARD 183 

that nearly all of the raisins that we import 
come from Spain, and that they are exported 
chiefly from the city of Malaga. 

The pm'ple and other ivine grapes are taken 
to the wineries and sold by the ton, to be made 
into wine. 

There are many other things that I should 
like to write about, but my letter is a pretty 
long one now, so I will close. 



Your loving friend. 



Frank. 



NUTTING 

Have you ever gone into the woods on a 
beautiful autumn day ? The bright, warm sun- 
shine floods the earth where the trees are far 
apart and sifts down through the branches. All 
nature seems to invite you to lie down under 
a tree and dream. It was on such a day that 
Rip Van Winkle fell into his long sleep. 

How pretty the trees look in their fall suits 
of yellow, crimson, red, and brown ! What a 
rustling is made as your feet tread the carpet 
of leaves ! 

The breezes pass among the branches and 
whisper a message to the bright-colored leaves. 
They understand and obey. Singly, in groups, 
and in showers, they silently float downward. 
By night and by day they fall, but soon this 
carpet will be changed for one of white. 

Listen ! The leaves are not the only things 
that are falling. You can hear the thump, 

184 



NUTTING 185 

tliump of nuts as they drop from their lofty 
perches in the wahiut and hickory-nut trees. 

Sit down quietly on that log and you will 
soon see the busy nut gatherers. With their 
tails curled over their backs, they race up and 
down the trees, or spring from branch to branch, 
carrying their precious burdens to their homes 
in the hollows of trunk or linil). Now one sits 
up straight, liolding a nut between his paws, 
and turning it slowly as he cracks and eats 
it. If he sees you, he wliisks out of sight, or 
scolds you from a safe place far above the 
ground. 

When the winter winds are whistlino; throuo^h 
the leafless trees, and snows are drifting over 
the ground, these little nut gatherers feast to 
their hearts' content. 

The squirrels do not gather all of the nutSo 
Children and grown people enjoy nutting. 
When there are not enough nuts on the 
ground, the men and boys climb the trees to 
shake them off. Then everybody hunts among 
the leaves for the treasures. 

Some of the most important nuts are walnuts, 



186 HOW WE ARE FED 

hickory nuts, hazelnuts, ahnonds, chestnuts, 
Brazil nuts, pecans, and peanuts. 

Many of the hickory nuts fall out of their 
coverings bright and clean. Walnuts generally 
have to be shucked, and the juice stains the 
hands almost black. 

As hazelnuts grow on bushes, they can be 
easily picked. They usually drop out of their 
burs after there have been a few frosts. 

Many nuts are gathered in the woods, but 
in some places the trees are cultivated just as 
fruit trees are. 

We usually eat nuts between meals, or as a 
dessert. They are not simply dainties, but are 
very valuable articles of food. In some coun- 
tries the poor people depend upon them for food. 

In almost any city of our country are to be 
found the nuts that I have mentioned, with 
perhaps several other kinds. These have come 
from different states, some from Canada, some 
from Brazil, and some from Spain. 

I am sure you will enjoy gathering nuts of 
different kinds, so let us set out on a nutting 
expedition. 



A WALNUT VACATION 

How would you like to have your school close 
for two weeks, so that you could gather walnuts ? 
Every year many of the boys and girls of South- 
ern California are given a vacatiou just for this 
purpose. It is ^called the '^walnut vacation," 
and occurs in the month of October. 

These children do not take their baskets and 
go off to the woods where they can romp and 
play, Avatch the squirrels, and gather beautiful 
autumn leaves. They gather nuts from the 
trees which then- parents own, for in Southern 
California there are many walnut ranches or 
groves. You see the vacation means a vacation 
for work instead of for play. 

Walnut trees are set out in rows just as apple 
trees are, but their roots and branches extend 
to such a distance from the trunks that they 
need to be about twice as far apart. 

The walnut harvest, which begins about the 

187 



188 



HOW WE ARE FED 



first of October, is a busy time. Men, women, 
boys, and girls may be seen in the groves, shak- 
ing the nuts from the trees, picking them up, 
and putting them into sacks. 




Fig. 61. —A Walnut Grove. 



The men shake the trees, and there is a 
shower of nuts to the earth. Do not go under 
the branches now unless you want to be pelted. 
A single tree has been known to yield three 
hundred 2:)0unds of nuts in a season. 



A WALNUT VACATION 189 

When the trees have been given a good shak- 
ing, there are still some nuts clinging to the 
branches. These are obtained by shaking the 
limbs separately, by means of long poles, to 
the ends of which wire hooks are fastened. As 
all of the nuts do not ripen at the same time, 
the trees are sometimes gone over two or three 
times. 

Now the boys, girls, and women go to work 
filling pails and baskets and emptying them 
into sacks, for they can do this work as well as 
men. 

Usually the nuts drop out of their covering or 
shuck when they strike the ground ; but if they 
do not, the shuck must be removed. Sometimes 
the covering is cut off. If you handle the nuts 
with your bare hands, they will be stained 
almost black, and you will have to let the color 
wear oft*. 

The days are bright and warm, and this sort 
of nutting becomes rather tiresome before sun- 
down. The work must be done and the vaca- 
tion is not a very long one, so each does his 
part cheerfully. 



190 



HOW WE ARE FED 



When the nuts have been gathered, they are 
taken to the shed or place where they are to be 
washed. Here they are poured into a large 
wire cylinder which revolves in a tank 
^"^ with water. The machine is 
Mied by a horse walking round 
5ind round, and it both washes 




Fig. 62. — Washing, Drying, and Sack 



and grades the nuts. The smaller ones pass 
through the meshes in the wire and are called 
second grade. The larger ones are known as 
first grade. 

When the walnuts come out of the washer, 
they are spread out on shallow, wooden trays to 
dry. Sometimes several thousand trays may be 



A WALNUT VACATION 191 

seen on one ranch. They are loaded on to a 
small car and pushed to the part of the field 
where they are wanted. 

If there is no foggy or cloudy w^eather, they 
will dry hi about five days, but if there is, it 
may take ten. 

After the nuts are thoroughly dried, the trays 
are jDlaced on the car and pushed to the bleacher. 
This is a large box made of tarred paper. It 
is placed over the trays, and a quantity of sul- 
phur is burned in it. This is simply to whiten 
the shells, for they sell for a higher price when 
they are bleached. Sometimes the nuts are 
whitened by dipping them into a liquid prepara- 
tion. 

The nuts are now sacked and marked, ready 
to ship. Soon after the boys and girls have 
finished their " walnut vacation," the nuts are 
on their way to the eastern part of the United 
States. 

Most of the walnuts raised in California have 
soft sliells. Some have such thin shells that 
they are called " paper shells." The walnuts 
that grow in the woods of Indiana, Illinois^ 



192 HOW WE AKE FED 

and other states have hard shells. They are 
dark in color and are called hlack ivahiuts. The 
trees are quite valuable, as the wood is used 
in making furniture. 



CHESTNUTS 

Let ITS go on a cliestnutting expedition to 
the southern part of France. We can gather 
the nuts in many of the states of our own 
country, but the trip to a strange land will be 
enjoyed by all. 

The chestnut trees, many of which are very 
old, spread their branches to great distances. 
The nuts, as you see, are inclosed in a hur or 
coat which covers the shell. There are srener- 
ally two nuts in eacli bur. 

When you eat chestnuts, you eat them as a 
sort of dainty, not as a regular article of food. 
This is not the case in the home of Jean, 
the boy who is helping his father fill those 
sacks. In his home, as in many homes in 
southern Europe, the nuts form one of the 
chief articles of daily food.' 

In the winter Jean sells the freshly roasted 
nuts on a street corner in the city of Lyons. 

193 



194 HOW WE ARE FED 

He gets a good many pennies each noon from 
workmen and poor people generally, who use 
them for their midday meal. He sells ten nuts 
for a penny. 

This is not the only way in which they are 
eaten. Jean's mother boils them with celery 
and mashes them as we do potatoes. The nuts 
are also ground into a flour from which bread 
is made. They are often used in the dressing 
for fowls. 

Confectioners use great quantities of chest- 
nuts. In Lyons there are establishments where 
as many as two hundred persons are employed 
in preparing them. 

The nuts are first peeled, and then boiled in 
clear water, which removes the thin coating 
next the kernel. They are then placed in a 
sirup flavored with Mexican vanilla, in which 
they remain for about three days. After drain- 
ing, they are coated with vanilla or chocolate 
and packed in attractive boxes. In this form 
they are worth forty-five or fifty cents a 
pound. 



A BAG OF PEANUTS 

Last summer Harry's parents took him with 
them on a visit to Virginia. Harry has always 
lived in New York City, and the country life 
of the South was very interesting to him. 

They visited friends who live on a beautiful 
jjlantation^ as the farms in the South are called. 
A driveway lined with grand old trees leads 
through the flower-studded lawn up to the 
retired manor house, whose wide verandas 
completely circle it round. 

Beyond the house are the stables where work 
horses, driving horses, and saddle horses are kept ; 
and beyond these is the pretty little boathouse, 
standing on the bank of a small river that 
winds its way through the plantation. 

The morning after Harry arrived, his friend 
Bert asked him if he w^ould like to go across 
the river to see the men harvest peanuts. 

Now whenever Harry had wanted peanuts, 

195 



196 HOW WE ARE FED 

he had always gone to a stand and bought 
a sack. He had never thought about where 
they came from. He had heard of shakmg 
nuts from trees, so he supposed that they were 
going to the woods. 

He was therefore much surprised when Bert 
took him to a field across the river where men 
were plowing vines from the ground. 

" Do peanuts grow in the ground ? " he 
asked. 

" Why, of course they do," answered Bert. 

" I thought that nuts grew on trees," said 
Harry. 

" Father says that the peanut is not a real 
nut," replied his friend. " He says they should 
be called ground nuts or ground jyeasT He 
pulled up one of the vines, and the boys threw 
themselves down under a tree to examine it. 

When the small clods of soil clinging to 
the roots of the plant had been removed, 
Harry saw a number of pods which he recog- 
nized as peanuts. 

Opening one of the pods, Bert took out the 
kernels. 



A BAG OF PEANUTS 197 

" These," said lie, " are the seeds, and they 
are planted much as other seeds are. 

" Before they are planted the shell must be 
reuioved, but we have to be careful not to break 
the thin skin that covers the kernel. If that 
be broken, the seed will not grow. 

" The kernels are planted about one foot 
apart, in rows that are, as you see, about three 
feet apart. Sometimes they are planted by 
hand and sometimes by machinery." 

" I wonder if peanuts are raised in the 
country around New York," said Harry. 

"No, I think not," replied Bert, "for they 
are very easily killed by frost. Great quantities 
are raised in North Carolina and in Tennessee. 
Father says that the negroes of western Africa 
raised them long, long before they were known 
in the United States. He says that they are 
a very important article of food there, and 
that whole villages take part in the planting 
and harvesting. 

" After the vines blossom," continued Bert, 
"a very strange thing happens." 

"What is it?" asked Harry. 



198 HOW WE ARE FED 

" The flower stalks bend downward and push 
themselves right into the soil, and on these 
the pods develop. If the stalks do not enter 
the earth within a few hours after the flowers 
fall, they die." 

Harry now watched the plowing. The plows 
were drawn up and down the rows and ran 
directly under the vines, lifting them out of 
the soil. After they had been plowed out about 
two hours, men took them upon pitchforks and 
piled them up. Harry noticed that some of the 
piles were covered with corn fodder, and asked 
why this was. Bert told him that it was to 
keep out the rain. 

" What happens to the nuts after the vines 
have been piled up ? " said Harry. 

" They remain in the piles fifteen or twenty 
days, and are then spread out on the ground 
or hauled to the barn, where the nuts are 
picked off," answered Bert. " Sometimes they 
are picked by hand and sometimes by ma- 
chinery. Let us go to the lower field ; we 
have an earlier variety there, and the nuts are 
being picked now." 



A BAG OF PEANUTS 199 

They found men, women, and children pick- 
ing the pods one by one and dropping them 
into baskets. These were emptied into sacks. 
Harry tried to lift one of these, and was sur- 
prised to find it so heavy. Bert told him that 
it weighed about one hundred pounds. 

'' Do you burn the vines after the nuts are 
picked ? " asked Harry. 

•• No," said Bert, " they are fed to the cattle. 
We call the vines peanut hay'' 

Bert explained that his father sold the sacks 
of nuts to the factory, where they were cleaned 
and sorted. 

The next day the boys went to town and 
visited the peanut factory. 

The nuts were first put through a machine 
which removed the dirt. They were then pol- 
ished and sorted into four grades. The poorest 
grade is used in making peanut candy. The 
nuts were then sacked, and were ready to be 
shipped to the North. 

Harry learned that an oil is made from the 
nuts which is used as olive oil is used, and also 
that peanut butter is produced from them. He 



200 HOW WE ARE FED 

found that many men were employed on plan- 
tations all tlirougli Virginia and other states of 
the South, in raising the peanuts that are sold 
on the streets of every city and town in our 
country. 



ASSORTED NUTS 

After the Thanksgiving dinner had been 
eaten, the nuts were passed, and the children 
asked Uncle John to tell them something about 
a few of them. 

"All right," said he. "You pick out the 
ones that you want to know about." 

Frank handed him an almond. 

" This nut," said Uncle John, " came from 
sunny Spain. It grew not far from the blue 
Mediterranean. Almonds are raised in most 
parts of southern Europe and in" the northern 
part of Africa. Ages ago they grew in the Holy 
Land, and are mentioned in the Bible." 

" Do almonds grow in any part of our coun- 
try ? " asked Helen. 

"I think they grow in California," said 
Frank. 

" You are right," said Uncle John. " There 
are many almond orchards in the southern part 
of tlie state. 

201 



202 



HOW WE ARE FED 



" An almond tree in full bloom is a beautiful 
sight. The blossoms are white, tinted with 
pink, and as they appear before the leaves do, 
there is nothing to hide them." 




ElG. 6.: 



Almond Trees in Full Bloom. 



"Does the nut have a covering?" inquired 
Mary. 

" Yes," replied Uncle John. " ^Yhen the 
nut is ripe, the shuck opens gradually, and 
sometimes the nuts fall out. 

"When people have large orchards, they 



ASSORTED NUTS 203 

spread pieces of canvas under the trees and then 
shake them or beat thein by means of long poles. 

" The nuts that do not fall out of the shucks 
are obtamed by opening the shuck with a knife. 
The nuts are then dried, and are ready for 
market." 

As soon as Uncle John had finished, Mary 
handed hun a hazelnut. ^'Please tell about 
this one," said she. 

" I have often gone hazel nutting when I was 
a boy," said her uncle. " Hazelnuts grow on 
bushes in thickets. They are six or eight feet 
high and very slender. Baskets are sometimes 
made of them, and I have often used them for 
arrows. 

" Sometimes the nuts grow singly, and some- 
times m groups of two or three. A bur covers 
the nut, which sticks very closely until it is ripe. 
Then the nuts often fall out. 

" x\fter I had gathered the hazelnuts, I used 
to spread them out on the roof of the wood house 
to dry." 

"Nuts that look just like these are called 
filberts," said Helen. 



204 HOW WE ARE FED 

"Filberts are cultivated hazelnuts," replied 
Uncle John ; " they are larger than the wild 
ones." 

" I would like to know how this nut grows," 
said Helen, handing her uncle a black nut 
shaped like a triangular prism. 

" This," said Uncle John, " came from Brazil, 
and is called a Brazil nut. Do you know where 
Brazil is ? " 

" It is in the northeastern part of South 
America," replied Helen. 

" The great Amazon River is in Brazil, and 
it flows through tropical forests," said Mary. 

" Much of our coffee comes from Brazil," said 
Frank. 

Uncle John then told the children that 
Brazil nuts come from the northern part of 
Brazil and from the Orinoco valley. 

Helen asked if they grow as walnuts and 
hickory nuts do. 

"No," answered her uncle, "they grow in- 
side of a great case or shell. There are from 
eighteen to twenty-five in one shell, which is 
nearly as large as a man's head." 



ASSORTED NUTS 205 

" How are the nuts got out of the shells ? " 
asked Mary. 

" When they fall, men break them open and 
take out the nuts/' replied Uncle John. " Most 
of them are sent down the Amazon to the city 
of Para and from there shipped to the United 
States and other countries." 

None of the children knew where Para is 
situated, so they all went to the library to 
look at the atlas. After they had located it, 
Uncle John told them of his visit to the city 
and of the wonderful things which he saw on 
a steamboat trip up the Amazon River. 



A STRANGE CONVERSATION 

One evening after I had been reading for 
some time, I went to the kitchen to get a drink 
of water. That part of the house was dark 
and quiet, and as I stepped through the door- 
way, I heard low, musical voices, apparently in 
the pantry. I was very much surprised, you 
may be sure, and I kept perfectly still, and 
listened. 

" Yes," said a voice, which I could barely 
hear, '' I am a long w^ay from home indeed, 
and sometimes it makes me quite lonely when 
I think of it." 

" Tell us about your home, and how you 
lived," said another low voice. 

" Well," began the first speaker, " my name 
is Peiyper, With twenty-five or thirty brothers 
and sisters I grew in a cluster on a vine. 
We were but a small part of the family, for 
there were similar clusters all over our vine. 

206 



A STRANGE CONVERSATION 207 

We were about as large as peas, and grew some- 
what after the fashion of currants. 

" All about were other vines to which friends 
and relatives were attached. Pepper vines are 
always anxious to get to the top, and so some 
of these vines climbed trees and some twined 
themselves about poles, which men had set in 
the ground for this purpose. Our vine was 
three or four years old when we appeared on 
it." 

" How long did you live on the vine?" asked 
a voice that I had not heard before. 

" Only a few months," replied Pepper. " You 
see, we had to make room for another set of 
berries. Two sets appear each year for twenty 
years or more. 

" Under the influence of the tropical sunshine 
and the warm rains we grew day by day, 
and we were as happy as the' butterflies and 
birds about us. By and by we began to turn 
red. All of this time a hull or coat was forming 
on the outside of our bodies. 

" Before we became entirely red, workmen 
came to the field, and, by rubbing us between 



208 HOW WE ARE FED 

their hands, separated us from the stems to 
which we lovingly clung. 

"After having been picked, I was, with 
many others, placed upon a mat to dry. These 
mats were all about us, each covered with 
berries. After being thoroughly dried we were 
put into a mill and ground, and I became what 
I am now, Black FejppevT 

"Are there other kinds of pepper?" asked 
some one. 

" Oh, yes," said Pepper, " there is Wliite 
Pep2^e7\ and Bed, or Cayenne Pepper. Some 
of my friends were made into White Pepper. 
They were soaked in limewater for about two 
weeks, and this, of course, softened and wrinkled 
their hulls which had always fitted so nicely. 
This was bad enough, but it was not the 
worst." 

" What happened next ? " said several voices. 

'^ They were then," continued Pepper, " trod- 
den under the bare feet of dark-skinned men, 
and this rubbed off their hulls completely. 
After this they were ground as we had been. 

" Cayenne Pepper is not a member of our 



A STRANGE CONVERSATION 209 

family at all, altliougli it lias the same name. 
I have looked up its genealogy, and I find that 
it received its name from the city of Cayenne, 
in French Guiana, near which it grows. It is in 
the form of bell-shaped pods, and grows on low, 
bushy plants instead of vines. 

" The pods are green at first, but red when 
ripe. No doubt you have seen strings of them 
hanging in the grocery store Avhen you were 
on the shelves. People sometimes use the 
pods as they are, but usually they are dried, 
ground, mixed with yeast, and baked into flat 
cakes like crackers. When these cakes are 
ground. Red, or Cayenne Pepper, is produced. 
It is put up in little boxes just as we are. 

" Pepper used to be regarded as a great 
luxury," the speaker went on. " Until the 
eighteenth century the Portuguese handled al- 
most all of it. It was not uncommon for rents 
to be paid with pepper. If any of you have 
read ancient history, you know that when Alaric 
took Rome he demanded, among other things, 
one thousand pounds of pepper as a ransom. 

'' My home was in the East Indies," said 



210 now WE ARl': FED 

Pepper, '^ but there are members of our fam- 
ily living in the Philippines, India, Mexico, 
the West Indies, and other tropical countries." 

"Your story is a very interesting one," said 
a voice, " and now, if you care to hear it, I will 
tell something of my life." 

'' Yes, do tell us," said several at once. 

"Very well, I will follow the example of 
our friend Pepper and introduce myself at once. 
I am known as Ginger. I have relatives living 
in China, in India, and in the western part of 
Africa, but I came from the West Indies. The 
Ginger family is not like that of Pepper; it 
has no lofty notions." 

Pepper seemed a little inclined to get angry, 
so Ginger hastened to say : " I mean that our 
vines do not clhnb trees or poles, but run along 
the ground. I was a root and not a fruit.'' 

" When I was about a year old I, with count- 
less friends, was dug from the ground. We 
were cut from the vines and put into vats of 
scalding water." 

" That was dreadful,'' said Pepper. 

" We were treated in that way to prevent us 



A STRANGE CONVERSATION 211 

from sjjr outing,'' continued Ginger. " After 
being taken out of the water, we were thor- 
oughly dried and then ground. We were then 
put up in cans and boxes and sold as Black 
Gbujer. Others were scraped before being 
ground, and they were then called Widte Ginger. 

" We were placed on board a great ship and 
finally landed at New York. After remaining 
in a large store there for some time, I was 
brought to the corner grocery, and so I found 
my way to this shelf. 

'' I am gradually wasting away, and I shall 
not last a great while longer. In my tropical 
home I seemed to be of no use to anybody, 
while now I am called for frequently by the 
cook, and my services seem to be appreciated, 
so I am happy." 

" To be of some real use in this world is the 
greatest joy of life," remarked a strange voice. 

There was silence for a moment, and then 
Ginger said " May we not hear from you, 
friend?" 

" Your stories almost make me believe that I 
am still in the land of my birth," was the reply. 



212 HOW WE ARE FED 

There was a peculiar little rattle about the 
voice, which I recognized at once as belonging to 
Cinnamon. 

" For several years I was rocked to and fro 
by gentle tropic breezes or lashed about by 
storms. From my perch I could see beautiful 
flowers, bright insects, and even serpents in the 
thicket at my feet. Birds of brilliant plumage 
often perched upon me. My home was on the 
island of Ceylon. 

" It is often said that where there is much 
bark there is no bite. In my own case that is 
not so." 

" I do not understand," said Ginger. 

" Why," said Cinnamon, laughing, " I am all 
bark, and I have considerable bite, as those who 
have tasted me know. 

" I was taken from one of the smaller limbs 
of a cinnamon tree. I was slipped within a 
larger piece of bark, for we each rolled up when 
stripped from the limbs. A still larger piece 
was slipped over us and so on until quite a 
bundle had been formed. Some were quite 
short, and some were three feet in length. 



A STRANGE CONVERSATION 213 

" We were then gathered into packages and 
a sort of matting was sewed about us. In 
this form we were shipped to New York. In a 
great Avarehouse there I became acquainted 
with Cinnamon from Java, China, Egypt, and 
Brazil. From these friends I learned many 
interesting things about different parts of the 
world, which I may tell you some time." 

Another voice now took up the conversation. 

" We have heard from a fruit, a root, and a 
bark. I am none of these, but a flower not 
fully developed. I was one of the myriad buds 
that decorated a beautiful evergreen tree, on an 
island in the Indian Ocean. 

" Men call me Clom because I bear some 
resemblance to a little nail. The part of my 
body which looks like the head of a nail is 
formed by the corolla which did not have a 
chance to open fully. 

'' When I was picked, I was just changing 
from a green to a red color. I was placed, 
with others of my kind, on a large cloth spread 
on the ground, and there we dried and hardened. 
As we dried, we became dark brown in color. 



214 HOW WE ARE FED 

" Our family used to live on the Molucca 
Islands, but it has been scattered, and members 
are now found in tropical Africa, in Brazil, in 
the West Indies, and elsewhere." 

There was a slight stir as though some one 
else were preparing to speak, but just at that 
minute a door slammed, and in an instant all 
was still. I waited for some time, hoping to 
hear more of this interesting conversation ; but 
not another word was spoken, so I hurried to 
the library and wrote all that I had heard. 



STORIES OF CALIFORNIA 

BY 

ELLA M. SEXTON 

Wifh many illustrations 

Cloth i6mo $1.00 net 



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unfold to children and their parents the life of bygone 
days." — The Outlook, 



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